An Olympic theme for European day of Languages

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

Year 7 and I saw a fantastic joint PE & Languages assembly today over at the Mountbatten School in Romsey. Jointly delivered by the Heads of each faculty, it was based around the values of the Olympic games, with each value represented by a different athlete from around the world, present and past.

There are plenty of resources appearing in preparation for the 2012 Olympics already, and I know EMTAS is planning a series of taster workshops in various 'community' languages ranging from Nepali to Mandarin in local primaries also based around the theme. I have gathered here a list of links and resources you can obtain for free in case you are looking either for something last minute for the 26th September or are gearing up well ahead for the Olympics too!

But firstly, I was so inspired by the story behind the first athletes that Mountbatten had chosen to represent the Olympic value 'friendship' that I am compelled to share it:

Of course you will recognise at least one of the men in the picture above - Jesse Owens. Competing for the US in the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Owens was up against not only the creme of world athletes of his time, but also Adolf Hitler's plans to show the world his vision of Aryan supremecy. On the 4th August Owens was due to compete in the long jump, and had to first make his qualifying jumps. The first two jumps he fluffed and was very dispirited, when a young blonde German competitor, Luz Long, approached Owens. Luz suggested there might be something wrong with the way Owens was marking his run-up and offered his assistance. Owens took his advice and the third jump was successful. Owens, of course then went on to win the Gold with Luz takin the Silver. Owens and Luz became friends at a time & in a place when all the odds say they should not have done. Sadly Luz was killed soon after in the Second World War, but was posthumously awarded the Olympic 'Pierre de Coubertin' medal for his actions in the spirit of sportsmanship.

Now here are the promised links I found - please do add your own!

Firstly the BBC have a fun child/assembly-firendly quiz with a little Greek thrown in at http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/greek/olympics/

Or go for a more whole-school PSCHE / community cohesion theme and take the 'Welcome the World pledge' and learn more about Languages and other countries in general at http://www.rln-london.com/Welcoming/default.aspx

Check out the ideas, lessn plans and resources provided by the Olympic association over a http://www.olympics.org.uk/education.aspx

Linda Ayers has made a PowerPoint 'jeux olympiques' that you can download from the TES Resources at http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=3013600

And Christian Aid have made an assembly PowerPoint with the theme of Peace also available in Welsh on TES Resources at http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6020084

While for the more traditional last minute European Day of Language ideas, check out these blogposts from previous years.
http://primarymfl.ning.com/profiles/blogs/738935:BlogPost:22261

and don't forget Caroline Smith's ideas for a teacher competition to celebrate European Day of Languages too http://primarymfl.ning.com/group/languagecoordinators/forum/topics/...

[Lorraine]

Bless you Jo for all your hard work.
Here on the Island, unfortunately, I've yet to meet someone who's planning to do anything. It's not on a school day, re-organisation is mostly people's priority at the mo' and secondary schools are just so pressurised with timetable allocations. Such a shame languages are so poorly thought of.
I had an idea all planned if I managed to get some work as well.