Olympics and jumping

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By Christina Baker – education writer

Develop pupils’ skills in leaps and bounds, as they learn about jumping events in the Olympic Games and then explore the theme in a range of cross-curricular activities.

Olympic jumps

Visit the ‘Olympic sports’ section of the official London 2012 website and show examples of various events that involve jumping (for example, long/high/triple jump, pole vault, trampoline, rhythmic gymnastics, vault, balance beam, hurdles, BMX, showjumping, basketball, diving) – the pages have graphic icons representing events, as well as video clips. Alternatively, use the images in the Gallery , ‘Olympic jumping events’.

Ask KS1 pupils to talk about the different kinds of jumps. As a class, create a word list to describe the athletes and their actions (for example, jumping, high, higher, highest, over, further, push, strong, healthy) for pupils to use for writing sentences. Talk about how the jumping events are similar or different.

Ask KS2 pupils to work in mixed-ability pairs to scan and skim the information on the website. They can either choose two different events and write facts about each or answer the questions on Activity sheet , ‘Olympic jumps’.