Designing Olympic Uniforms and the Olympic Village

We have been studying the upcoming Olympics here at our house. One of the things we discussed a lot was what being on a team meant since this year was the first time that Little BBQ played on a team with other kids. We discussed both the obvious things like uniforms and the more interpersonal stuff that team members do for each other. To celebrate team work we designed our own Olympic uniforms for team USA. This was also a nice introduction to fashion design. We discussed the different types of neck lines in a shirt. Little BBQ informs me that he likes V-neck shirts the most. We made a liquid water color background in sunset colors. 

Then, we cut out uniforms from scrap fabric. Next, Little BBQ drew a female and male for each of the uniforms. We pasted construction paper grass on the sunset back ground along with the athletes. Little BBQ added some details with tempura paints like the Olympic rings at the upper left hand corner of the page.

We also designed out own Olympic village out of a shallow card board box. The houses for athletes are represented by Legos®. Little BBQ got really into this project. He made a track, a pool, food carts, buses to transport the athletes, a river, and a soccer field. We discussed where different Olympic events would be held at his Olympic village. He also told me that there would be lots of carrots served at his Olympic village so the athletes can grow up big and strong.

Materials for Olympic Uniforms

2 sheets sketch paper

Liquid water colors

Oil pastels

Ball point pen

Scrap fabric

Scissors

Glue

Green construction paper

Buttons and other accessories

Tempera paints

Directions

1.       Using the liquid water colors, paint a background on one of the sketch papers. Allow the back ground to dry.

2.       Draw two athletes on the second piece of sketch paper with oil pastels. Set the athletes aside.

3.       Using a ball point pen, draw the Olympic uniform on the reverse side of the fabric.

4.       Cut out the Olympic uniform and glue it on the oil pastel athlete.

5.       Cut around the two athletes. Set the athletes aside.

6.       Cut grass out of the green construction paper.

7.       Glue the grass on the back ground.

8.       Glue the athletes on the grass.

9.       Glue accessories to the Olympic uniforms.

10.   Using tempera paints, add extra details.

Materials for Box Assemblage Olympic Village

Shallow box without a lid

Pencil

Legos®

Crayons, oil pastel, tempura paints

Directions

1.       In pencil, lightly sketch the layout of the Olympic village.

2.       Place the Legos® to represent buildings.

3.       Decorate the Olympic village with crayons, oil pastels, and paint.

Book Review: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet is a must read for a casual space geek. The book is light hearted with many cartoons and hand written letters from disgruntled elementary school students sprinkled inside. The author pokes fun of himself as one of the leaders of the downfall of Pluto as a planet. The book, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, does an excellent job of teaching technical science terms in a casual manner that is easy for the lay reader to understand. I would highly recommend this book for any middle or high school student interested in space history.

The last chapter of the book, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, is a note to educators on how to teach astronomy to young students that is well worth the read. Tyson suggests that educators teach the planets in terms of density. The inner planets of the solar system are denser than water and will sink if they are placed in a large bowl of water while the large gas planets will float and are less dense than water. Tyson says that Saturn has the approximate density of cork which will float in a bowl of water.

I think this book will make an appearance again when my children are old enough to read and understand this book. At approximately 150 pages it is a fast read with large type, so it will make a great supplementary science reading book. Plus, it is readily available at most public libraries.