Wacky Olympics

 

Today's Snack: The Olympic flag shows five joined circles in the colors of all of the flags of the world: red, blue, green, yellow and black. The circles represent the continents of the world. Though there are seven, the Olympics symbol reduces them into five by combining North and South America into one as "The Americas," and excluding Antarctica, where nobody lives.

 

 

You see those symbols a lot during the Olympics every two years. So let's make an edible set!

Cut one ring each from a red, green and yellow pepper. Add one "ring" made from blue fruit leather. For the black one, you can get close enough by cutting another ring from the fat end of a dark purple eggplant, and cut away all of the slice but the outside ring.

Arrange on a couple of pieces of whole-grain white bread. Dip the veggie rings in a little low-fat ranch dip, add a little fruit jam to the bread, and wash down that mix of flavors with the best Olympic drink of all - cold water!

 

 

--------------------

 

Supplies:

 

 

For torch: 1 sheet of white construction paper, Scotch tape, and 12" squares of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper. Roll the paper into a cone, tape it closed, and stuff the tissue paper inside, poking it deeply into the cone.

 

 

Swimmer Michael Phelps with one of his many gold medals.

 

 

For medals: gold foil from a craft store (look by candy-making supplies) wrapped over a juice-can lid or other large lid, hot-glued to ribbon; you can make silver medals out of regular aluminum foil, and for bronze medals, color a silver one with a thick reddish-brown marker

 

 

 

For swim goggles: Take a 6" square piece of craft foam and cut out two egg shapes. Then cut a slit in the center of each and insert scissors to cut out the center, creating the "eyepieces." Then cut a 1½" piece from a pipe cleaner and connect the two "eyepieces" like a "nosepiece." Use more pipe cleaners to make two "earpieces." Last, cut two pieces of clear plastic wrap a little bigger than the eye holes, and glue or glue-stick them on the inside of the eyepieces so they don't show.

 

 

 

            Produce your own Kids' Olympics with some creative and unique games that will give you and your friends some world-class fun!

 

            Make an Olympic torch and have an "opening ceremonies" where you all parade in to the gym or multipurpose room where you will have these games.

 

            If you have a lot of kids, you might want to offer several games.

 

            Make sure to make gold (first place), silver (second place) and bronze (third place) medals for each of the games. You'll need four of each color for each relay that you plan. The students might enjoy making them, or an adult can make them in advance. It might be nice to set it up so that each student can win one medal. So near the end of your event, limit participation just to those students who haven't yet won a medal.

 

            You can make props in advance, such as pipe-cleaner swim goggles, if you decide to have the "Air Swim" games listed below. You could set up a winner's circle for the medals ceremony after each event.

 

It would be fun for each student to make his or her own props. But basically, the idea is to have fun, get a little exercise, and dream of actually competing in the real thing someday.

 

 

Air Swim

 

Do this in a big room, preferably a gym. Wearing pipe-cleaner goggles, walk or run from one end of the gym to the other doing arms-only swimming movements. So, for example, in backstroke, you'd walk backwards swinging your arms in alternate circles. For breaststroke, you'd run forwards doing the breaststroke arm movements. There should be lines painted on both ends of the gym, or you can chalk lines if you're outside, or make "lanes" with masking tape if you're inside.

 

Wriggling Relay

 

Also in a big room, set up two-person or four-person relay teams with two team members on either end of the gym. You have to lay down on your belly and wriggle, like a worm, to the other end. Instead of passing a baton to the next person for the relay, you must bump your head into your teammate's - gently! -before he or she can wriggle to the other end.

 

Hopping Slalom

 

Set out plastic cones or other objects for a slalom course on a ski slope. Contestants must grab one foot with one hand, and hop on the other foot making the gentle curves of the slalom course. If you have a stopwatch, it helps decide who the winners are.

 

Have Fun Making Up More Events!