Timed perfectly for the arrival of the Olympic Flame in Great Britain, the children of the Prep School fused the inspiration of the Olympics and Paralympics into their learning this week, by incorporating this into all aspects of the work.
As an introduction to their studies, the children from Year 2 and Year 5 visited the Bikes, Balls and Biscuitmen exhibition at the Reading Museum. This exhibition presents a display of rare and interesting memorabilia including: vintage the 1948 London Olympics torch and the 1964 Olympic Gold Medal won in Tokyo by the Reading athlete Anne Packer.
In their mathematics, children practised adding the totals of their scores in Reception class Archery competition, whilst the children in Year 2 completed investigatory work on multiples of four, linking this to the four year Olympic cycle. Children from Years 3 to 6 focussed on seeing how fast they could either run or ride their bicycles in mph’s and used calculations to compare their own speeds to that of sprinters Usain Bolt and Sir Chris Hoy.
Across the school, exemplary artwork has been produced including the children’s own designs Olympic torches and innovative designs for the Olympic rings.
For their English work, children have produced newspaper articles, with predictions on results at London 2012, as well as eyewitness accounts from the first ever Modern Olympic Games in 1896.
In their Geography work, the children used atlases to locate and learn about the Olympic and Paralympic games that have taken place around the world. The children have also constructed their own versions of the 2012 Olympic Park in London and mapped and labelled significant features of this site.
Finally, in PSCHE, the children worked to together in unity to strengthen the Olympic and Paralympic values of Equality, Friendship, Respect, Inspiration, Determination and Courage.
All of the children’s work will begin to be exhibited in the Prep School this week for parents to view.