A Note to Teachers, Librarians and Parents

Try some of these sports-related activities in your home, library or classroom.  The educational activities are cross-curricular and integrate many subject areas, including math, science, technology, language arts, art, music, environmental studies and physical education.  Many of the activities can be adapted for any age level.

Design a sports stadium on paper, as a three-dimensional model, or by using a computer program.

Design a team logo for a fictional sports team or redesign an existing logo.

Use the sports page of your local newspaper to create math challenges related to statistics, multiplication, division, etc.

Report on a real sporting event that you attended or saw on television, or on an imaginary one that you read about in a novel.

•  Use the same language and style as a journalist or a sports broadcaster.
•  Incorporate a number of your "articles" in a "Sports Page" done in newspaper style on newsprint, on the computer, or as a news segment on videotape.
•  Illustrate the articles with pictures of the athletes or the events.

Write an article about your favourite athlete or review an autobiography/biography of an athlete.

Conduct a survey to find out the favourite sports of your friends and family.  Graph the results.

Discuss the history of sports.

• Are there any sports unique to Canada or that were invented in Canada?
• What sports were brought to Canada from other countries?
• How have they changed and why?

Compare different sports (e.g., rules, number of players, etc.).

Take an existing sport and modify some of its elements (e.g., net, size of playing surface, number of players) to make it easier or more difficult to play. If possible, try it out.  What are the results?

Study sports from around the world.  How are they similar/different from sports that are popular in Canada?  Try them in the physical education class.

Create a new sport.  What are the rules?  Design the playing surface and equipment. If possible, try it out.  What are the results?

Discuss the use of music in sports.

• Why do we always sing the anthem before sporting events?
• What is the origin of cheers and chants?
• Discuss "famous" musical pieces related to sports (e.g., the theme to Hockey Night in Canada on CBC or Hockey Night Tonight: The Hockey Song, by Stompin' Tom Connors.  (Charlottetown: Ragweed, 1995).

Look for poems about sports.

• Write your own poem.
• Create an acrostic poem, using the letters of a sports word to create a poem.

Discuss different careers related to sports (e.g., player, coach, manager, broadcaster, journalist, sports therapist).

Invite local athletes or others in sports-related careers to visit the class to talk about their sports, the importance of being physically active, the value of sports, etc.

Visit a sports centre, stadium or museum to learn more about a particular sport.

Read about the traditional sports and games of our First Peoples or early pioneers.

• What contemporary games do they remind you of?
• Name some First Peoples who are prominent in sports.

Discuss the role of women in sports.

• Make a list of famous Canadian women athletes.

Make a list of the sports covered in the books listed in Read Up On It.

• Can you think of some popular sports that are not included?
• Write a story or draw a picture about one of these sports.

Make a list of expressions that refer to sports, e.g., "You're out in left field".

• Discuss the meaning of these phrases.
• Create a story that incorporates them.

Debate the good and bad points about team sports and individual sports.

• Use examples from the stories you have read.

Discuss issues in sports such as commercialism, sportsmanship, equality, etc.

Make "baseball" cards, substituting authors for athletes.  For the statistics, list awards and book titles.  Draw the author's face on the front of the card.

After checking your school library and the children's section of your public library, browse in the adult section of the public library for a wider selection of books on sports.

A variety of science activities could be centered around sports.  For example, explore how size and material affect the speed, direction or movement of a football, baseball, puck, basketball, etc.  How are wood and aluminum bats different?  Why are downhill and cross-country skis designed differently?  How is friction related to skating?  Experiment!

Canada Post has interesting regulations about whose image can be used on a stamp. Find out what they are and then design a stamp to honour a Canadian athlete or sport. Some of the books in this kit will be helpful with your research. Write a proposal to Canada Post for your stamp.

Play Book Baseball!
Similar to the real game except that students get hits by naming authors or titles. First divide the class into two teams and arrange bases around the room. The teacher then "pitches" the question to the batter in such a way that it can be "hit" (answered) by either the title or the author of a book. If the student answers correctly with either one, she gets one base. If she answers with both the title and the author, she gets two bases. If the student answers incorrectly, she is out and the next person in line is "up at bat". After three outs, the teams change sides.