Aug. 6, 2008: 2008 Summer Olympic Games

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain News. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers. Click here to learn about subscribing to the eEdition at no cost to you (for Colorado teachers).

Activities:

1. Design a mascot for your city or hometown. Draw your mascot. Write a sentence telling how your mascot reflects your city.

2.With a friend, go through the newspaper and circle stories about sporting events. Put a check next to the sports that will be in the Olympics. Put a star by those sports that you can play in your community.

3. Look through the local news and sports sections for names of teams or school mascots. List the names on a piece of paper. Next to each name, explain why you think that team or school has that mascot name. How does the name reflect the community?

4. Which activities in the Beijing Olympics (a) reflect the original games in Greece, (b) will take place in cities other than Beijing, and (c) will take place indoors?

5. Use the Internet to find a listing of all the sports that will be part of the Beijing Olympics (www.olympic.org). Now find a news story about a sport that is not part of the Summer Olympics. Write a letter that you could send to the International Olympic Committee recommending that the sport be part of future Olympics.

This week's standards:

• Students understand the physical and human characteristics of places. (Geography: Places and Regions)
• Students understand that physical activity provides opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and social interaction. (Physical Education)
  
  

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)