It was a beautiful day, we had friends over and the Olympics are around the corner. How could I resist hosting our very own Summer Olympic games for kids? Nothing like some friendly competition to get boys riled up! Because this was last minute planning all of our activities and treats were simple and easy. I only had about 30min to prepare it so there was no other option but to go with easy.
Below I will show you our activities, snacks and ideas that made this Olympic Fun easy and enjoyable for the kids. The torch you see pictured above is our Edible Torch that’s featured over at Kid Activities Blog.
We started off by decorating our Edible NO BAKE Medals.
A little incentive for the kids, Edible Medals, they knew that at the end they had a yummy treat awaiting. You will need: store bought cookies( we used these chocolate covered round cookies), icing (I made cream cheese icing) and Fruit Loops. Insert a skewer into the end of the cookie so that you can string the ribbon through once the kids are done decorating and it dries. Tie it around their neck and watch it disappear in 10 seconds.
The Challenge
On the chalkboard I put all of the Atheletes names and the sports that they could compete in.
I gathered them and we talked about good sportsmanship. How the winners should respond to the others and how the ones who didn’t win should have a good attitude. We also emphasized that we are doing this to have fun and with practice we can improve if we don’t win. I also briefly shared about the Olympics and gave them a summary of the each challenge.
Our other incentive for good sportsmanship was this Olympic Bracelet. If you look closely above there are bracelets hanging from each atheletes name. I had the beads and everytime they completed a game with a good attitude they received a bead.
Making it adjustable: Make a knot on one end. Then slide the clear bead in then add another knot and slide your colored beads in. Then you make another knot to hold the colored beads in and you slide the other end that doesn’t have a knot through the clear bead and close it in with a knot.
The Olympic Sport Challenges
Water Sports, Ring Toss, Javelin, Discus, High Jump, Soccer, Obstacle Course and Gymnastics
Discus: For this we used a Golf Frisbees and the boys took turns throwing it. Note: if you choose to have a couple of them doing it at the same time make sure they have enough space in between. We had a minor frisbee face “punch” as a result of not spacing sufficiently.
Gymnastics- I used a hoola hoop and hung it from a tree. I left it up to them to do their own gymnastics moves, it was quite funny to see how creative they got.
Ring Toss- Again I tried to make all of the set up simple so for this game I used skewers and with a blade I made a circle inside each paper plate.
Soccer- We got double use out of our hoola hoop. We used it as a goal for our kick the ball in the goal challenge (sometimes the goal moved, tee hee).
Javelin- We just used a sword like toy, for them to throw. You could also use large thick skewers.
High Jump- I used chalk to make lots of circles at different distances.
Water Sports: We saved this for last! It was a perfect hot summers day, so to end with this was refreshing. We hung water balloons from the tree and they took turns busting them. Water balloon target practice with a stick. We tried using a frisbee but it wasn’t quite doing the trick.
We never got around to our obstacle course but the plan was to have them ride their bike around obstacles and midway have them jump off their bike crawl through a tunnel (a box) and get back on their bikes to finish. . These 7 challenges took about 1.5 hours with 5 boys between the ages of 4-8 years old.
Our own Olympic fun was a winner with our boys! They loved it and had so much fun being competitive but practicing good sportsmanship. I was so impressed with all of them. At the end they all received an Edible Gold Medal and their Olympic Bracelet with beads!
Super fun! I love the bracelets, and totally want to do something like this for my kids this Friday
Steph,
Enjoy it was so easy.
I love your medals and bracelets! They look fantastic.
Emma, Thanks!
What a great idea! I am so going to find a way to do something like this with my son this weekend!
Tammie,
I am sure he will enjoy it as much as our guys did.
I love the edible medals!
Trisha, Thanks and they were yummy too
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I’m so glad you took pictures of the boys competing. It was fun to see them. I can’t believe how big everyone is getting!!
What a brilliant idea! I too love the medals. Saw you on TT&J!
Oooh wow, lots of ideas there. Looks like a GREAT day!
Looks like you had lots of fun. Liking the medals
That looks like a lot of fun. I love the water balloons hanging from the trees.
wow.. This is one heck of a fantastic evening of Olympics for kids. I love the fun happening!
Thanks for linking up at Friday Fun Party. Have a nice weekend!
Such a great great sportive and playful post!!
Please link it up here:http://www.angeliquefelix.com/blog/children-celebrating-the-olympics-bloghop-kinderen-vieren-de-olympische-spelen
Thanks for sharing already on Facebook
With Love,
Angelique
Now that looked like an AWESOME day!!!!!
Thanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer.. From Dream To Reality!
I love the medals!
This looks like such a fun day. I love all your Olympic ideas.
Thanks for linking to the Sunday showcase.
Just to let you know I have featured this on the Sunday Showcase http://www.herecomethegirlsblog.com/2012/08/04/the-sunday-showcase.html
Have a great weekend!
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We’re doing Summer Olympics too but I thought it would be good to spread it out over a couple months so that our boys could increase their strength and ability and keep healthy over the Summer. It’s actually a great reminder to get them (and myself) motivated to keep active and go outside! We had them make a chart on a big board with ten rows of five boxes. As they complete an activity they get to check a box off. I also found some gold star stickers so if they do exceptionally well at an activity they get a gold star; that way I know to make it a little more difficult next round! When they get to 15, 30 & 50 they get a Bronze, silver & Gold medal or trophy (what ever I happen to whip up on the spot) & a choice of a movie, eating at a restaurant or Dairy Queen. It’s been so wonderful seeing them try things that my son on the spectrum used to just flat out refuse to do. He’s actually very good at most of them which we never knew before. We told them all they have to do is their best which removed the pressure and anxiety to “win”. Our motto is “You won if we had fun!” Thanks so much for the inspiration for fun games and the pictures are AWESOME!!! Great Job!