Learn Spanish through the Tokyo Olympics 2020 – Activities, Games and Resources

Description

We have chosen the 33 major Olympic sports as the vocabulary for this topic. Many of these sports are subdivided into several events:

• Athletics is the largest Olympic sport, with 48 different medal events.
• There are five aquatic sports: swimming, synchronized swimming, diving, water polo and open water swimming.
• There are three equestrian disciplines: jumping, dressage and eventing.
• Gymnastics is actually three events: artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampolining.
• There are four cycling events: BMX, mountain bike, road and track.

The modern pentathlon is a two-day competition. It consists of five events: fencing, show jumping, swimming, pistol shooting and a 3km cross-country run. The modern pentathlon was invented by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. The event was first held at the 1912 Olympic Games.

The triathlon is also a multi-disciplinary event. It consists of a 1,500m swim, a 43km cycle race and a 10km run. The events are held one after the other, with no breaks in between events. In fact, the speed of changing from one event to the next can be crucial. The triathlon has only been an Olympic sport since 2000.

Activities in this book

Spain at the Olympics/Spain at the Paralympics – use this information to help pupils improve their cultural understanding of Spain. Ask questions such as:

• Spain hosted the Summer Olympics in 1992. Can pupils find Barcelona on a map of Spain?
• Only four of Spain’s medals have been won at the Winter Olympics. Why do you think that is? (Great Britain has won 33 medals at the Winter Olympics.)
• Spanish athletes have won the most medals for sailing, followed by canoeing. Pupils could research which sports top the medal table for the UK (in terms of number of overall medals the top five sports are: athletics – 194; cycling – 75; swimming – 68; rowing – 63; sailing – 54). Why are some sports more popular in some countries than in others?

Flashcards and picture flashcards – use them to play Pairs, Concentration and other games to practise Spanish vocabulary. Reinforce vocabulary by asking pupils to match the pictures to the Spanish words.

Word searches, and crosswords reinforce the spelling of vocabulary.

‘Loto’ cards are provided to reinforce vocabulary.

Sentence-building activities encourage children to speak and write in Spanish.