I love the excitement around the Olympics! Although this year’s Summer Games will be very different because of the pandemic, there will still be so much to enjoy … and so many great lessons children can learn from the Olympic Games. While I especially appreciate the character education lessons, the geography inspiration and other high-interest learning opportunities are amazing as well.
So, our new unit is a summer sports unit with lots of Olympic-themed learning fun! Along with links to free summer sports printables used to prepare hands-on activities, I have a new Montessori-inspired summer sports pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Montessori Shelves with Summer Sports Themed Activities
Montessori Shelves with Summer Sports Themed Activities
You’ll find Montessori-inspired summer sports numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: The Montessori-inspired summer sports pack isn’t designed as a complete summer sports unit but as supplemental materials. I design the packs using realistic images that I’ve often looked for when preparing a unit study (such as font cards and phonogram cards featuring the letter and phonogram related to the theme and math cards with realistic images that fit the theme and can be adapted for math activities at a variety of levels.)
You could mix your summer sports themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special summer sports themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.
Montessori Book Basket and Shelves with Summer Sports Themed Activities
Even though I have books on shelves, I keep many books for our current theme in a book basket by the themed shelf. You’ll find a few of the books I’ve used here. For toddlers and preschoolers, at least ¾ of the books I use are Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles).
Notice the framed art print Sportsmen (1913) by Kazimir Malevich . It’s a free download from Wikiart.
For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!
If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.
Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers
I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs. You’ll find more ideas in the Living Montessori Now Amazon shop
She Persisted in Sports Book, All About the Olympic Games Book, and Summer Sports Creative Writing Tray
She Persisted in Sports, All About the Olympic Games, and Summer Sports Creative Writing
She Persisted in Sports has inspiring examples of American Olympians. The book celebrates the great accomplishments of many diverse women.
All About the Olympic Games has a good overview of the Olympics for kids.
Free Printables: “What is your favorite summer sport to do? Tell about it.” and “What is your favorite summer sport to watch? Tell about it.” (They’re both part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
The Travel Book (Lonely Planet Kids) with Free Olympic Printables and Wooden World Map
The Travel Book with Tray of Free Olympic Printables for Kids
I especially like The Travel Book for the Olympics because it has a page filled with photos and information for each of many countries around the world.
Because I have limited space, I put a number of free printables on one tray for us to use as needed. These are the printables on the tray:
Free Printable: Olympic Medal Count Bulletin Board Printable at StartsatEight (I love this because it has the flags of many Olympic countries. It’s great for a geography activity during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
Free Printable: “Finding out about Olympism: The Pictograms” from The Olympic Museum (I printed out the first 5 pages at half size and made a booklet using a binder ring. I also printed out the first 8 pages of Finding out about Oympism: The Olympic Values and Fair Play at half size and added the booklet to our kindness/friendship basket.)
Update: This is an amazing video … and a great way to learn more about the Olympic pictograms! Performers’ pictograms embody 50 Olympic disciplines | Tokyo Olympics | NBC Sports
Free Printable: Summer Olympics 2021 Medal Count by Little School on the Range
Free Printable: Summer Olympics Scavenger Hunt from Free Kids Crafts
The wooden world map is from LovelyGoodsBG on Etsy. It’s a beautiful reinforcement for continent work.
R for Runner Salt Writing Tray with Summer Sports Movable Alphabet Spelling
R for Runner Salt Writing Tray with Summer Sports Movable Alphabet Spelling
Free Printables: runner letter “r” for sand writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.
The sandpaper letters I use are available in print or cursive.
I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words. See below for a tray we just started using with my 3-year-old grandkids.
If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.
Sandpaper Letter R, Sand Writing Tray, and Runner Font Card
Working with Sandpaper Letter R, Sand Writing Tray, and Runner Font Card
I just used the manuscript print card with my 3-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, although they’re all available in either print or cursive in the pack. I like to introduce sandpaper letters in a Montessori order (from my post on what order to use in introducing letters to preschoolers). But I don’t worry about the order when I feature a letter or letters for our current unit.
To work with the /r/ sound, Sophia traced the sandpaper letter while we focused on the /r/ sound and /r/ for runner. I also showed her how to write the letter in the sand tray. Then Sophia worked on her own with the sand tray.
I got a new sand tray recently to test out one for younger kids. I love the spelling tray we have and like to have it out at the beginning of the unit to show words or letters in both print and cursive. But it’s shallow and can be messy for younger kids. I typically remove it from the shelf after a couple of days for that reason. This one is a perfect size for writing one letter, and it’s deep enough that I don’t have problems keeping it on the shelf. And my 3-year-old grandkids love the scraper tool! So now, we’ll probably have our spelling/alphabet tray out at the beginning of a unit and then have the smaller sand tray with the scraper for the rest of the time.
The book is the inspirational Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman.
Olympic Games Montessori Materials and Cursive Movable Alphabet Letters
Summer Olympic Sports Booklet with Summer Sports Alphabet Cards
Free Printable: Olympic Games Montessori Materials from Montessori Helper. You can see the materials as a booklet on the middle shelf far right. The printable is 62 pages with 3-part cards along with definition cards, so it’s perfect for ages 3-9. You’d have to decide which sports to feature if you want to use the printable as nomenclature cards. My grandkids love handmade books, so I made a booklet using a hole puncher and binder ring with the control card for each sport followed by the control definition card for the sport. I put the sports in alphabetical order. That way, each sport will be easy to find if I read about it before an event. It can also be used like an alphabet book to focus on beginning sounds even though a few letters won’t be in the book.
Free Printable: Summer sports alphabet cards in manuscript and cursive (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).
Matching Cursive Movable Alphabet Letters to Cursive Summer Sports Letters
Caleb already knows all the print letter sounds, and he’s having fun learning cursive. I laid out the cursive letters in order, and Caleb enjoyed matching them.
For other reading work, I have the free printable Summer Olympic Easy Reader Book from 3 Dinosaurs. It’s an easy-to-prepare, fun emergent reader for the Olympics.
Gymnast Work with Soft G and Hard G
Gymnast Card with Soft G and Hard G Printables
Free Printables: “gy” gymnast phonogram card in cursive (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)
Free Printable: Hard & Soft G & C Sorts and Mini Posters by Mrs Brownie at Teachers Pay Teachers (Note: I reduced the size of the poster when I printed it to fit on my tray.) We also used the free Hard and Soft C and G Posters (reduced in size) from Make, Take and Teach that I had used for our resilience unit.
Gymnast Work with Soft G and Hard G
My 7-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, isn’t taking gymnastics right now, but she loves to put on gymnastics shows for us. She’s looking forward to watching gymnastics during the Summer Olympics. This activity focused on the spelling rules for letter “g” words. I’ve gotten some interesting gymnastics books for our summer sports unit.
I’m often asked where I got our cursive wooden alphabet letters. In this post, you’ll find the link to those along with links to other movable alphabets you can purchase, printable movable alphabet letters, and a variety of DIY options.
Gold, Silver, and Bronze Sports Medal Addition
Gold, Silver, and Bronze Sports Medal Addition Tray
Free Printable: Sports medal numbers and number spinner 1-10 along with 10 gold medal circles, 10 silver medal circles, and 10 bronze medal circles (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: The printable circles are designed for wood slices 1.5″ in diameter. That’s a nice size if you’d like it to look more like a real medal. I printed mine out at 67% to fit better on my tray with 1″ wood slices and with the math cards. Either way is fine!
Gold, Silver, and Bronze Sports Medal Addition
For an early activity using 3 addends, I just used the gold, silver, and bronze medals, spinning the spinner to find the number of each. You could use Montessori materials with the coins if you wish, of course!
You can also use the spinner for a child working with numbers 1-10. There’s even one for the numbers 1-5 only.
More Activities with Purchased (and Some Free) Materials for Our Summer Sports Unit
Flag Cards, Olympic Puzzles, and Asia Pin It Map Work
Free Printable: Country Flag Card Printables from Homeschool Creations (These are in the card box and contain a variety of flags from a number of countries.) Every continent is represented … except Antarctica, of course!
Free Printable: Summer Olympics Tokyo 2021 Research FREEBIE Sampler Pages by Double Dose of Learning at Teachers Pay Teachers (I used the torch and Tokyo puzzles as simple ways to reinforce basic information about the Summer Olympics this year.)
The other materials are gorgeous pin map materials from Pin It! Maps. These are perfect for preschoolers through high schoolers. You can read more about Pin It! Maps here: Montessori-Inspired Map Activities Using Pin It! Maps. I love Montessori-friendly geography materials, and these are perfect. I have pin maps for each continent, but I like to feature the host country and continent for a specific Olympic Games.
Note: Pin It! Maps is a homeschool family business, and I just found it’s closed for family leave until September 1. Montessori Print Shop also has some great pin maps that I’ve used to make continent pin maps. You can see how I used them for an Olympic opening ceremony activity in my Montessori-Inspired Olympic Opening Ceremony Activities.
Along with some Little Passports activities, you’ll find a number of free Japan printables and hands-on activities here.
Montessori By Mom has an awesome Journey to Japan Toolbox.
In addition to our summer sports focus, we’re adding growth mindset books to our unit because growth mindset is so important for athletes (and everyone). You’ll find helpful growth mindset books and free printables through this post: Free Resilience Printables and Montessori-Inspired Resilience Activities.
Athletes also need to be able to stay calm while under intense pressure. Check out our calming activities and resources with mindfulness books: Free Calming Printables and Montessori-Inspired Calming Activities.
Free Sports Printables
Montessori-Inspired Summer Sports Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my newsletter to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).
Montessori-Inspired Winter Sports Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my newsletter to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).
- Montessori-Inspired Olympic Math Activities
- Free Golf Printables and Montessori-Inspired Golf Activities
- Free Summer Playdough Math Pack (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Montessori-Inspired Playdough Math Activities for Summer {Free Printables}
- Free Golfer Do-a-Dot Printables (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Golf Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Resilience Printables and Montessori-Inspired Resilience Activities (the subscriber freebie includes bounce back tennis ball alphabet cards in print and cursive)
- Free Winter Sports Printables and Montessori-Inspired Winter Sports Activities
- Free Winter Sports Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Winter Sports Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Summer Sports Printables and Montessori-Inspired Summer Sports Activities
- Free R for Run Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Summer Sports Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired instant Download
More Olympic Resources
- Free Character Education Resources about Olympic and Paralympic Values
- Montessori-Inspired Olympic Opening Ceremony Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Olympic Math Activities
- Montessori-Inspired Olympic Unit
- Montessori-Inspired Activities for Winter or Summer Olympics
- Free Respect Songs and Rhymes {Character Education Resources}
- Free Resilience Printables and Montessori-Inspired Resilience Activities
- Free Friendship Songs and Rhymes {Character Education Resources}
- What Are the Olympic and Paralympic Values?
- Ultimate Guide to Olympic Values
- Free Determination Songs and Rhymes {Character Education Resources}
- Free Courage Songs and Rhymes {Character Education Resources}
- Free Equality and Fairness Songs {Character Education Resources}
- Free Winter Sports Printables and Montessori-Inspired Winter Sports Activities
- Free Winter Sports Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Winter Sports Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Summer Sports Printables and Montessori-Inspired Summer Sports Activities
- Free R for Run Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
- Free Summer Sports Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired instant Download
- Olympic Unit Study Pinterest Board
If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout July and August, see my July Themed Activities for Kids. and August Themed Activities for Kids.
Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!
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