Celebrating the Olympics: Planning an Opening Ceremony Party

The Olympics offer so many opportunities for learning through celebration. This Friday night, we’re planning an Opening Ceremony Party, where our family will gather in front of the big screen with party foods, a map, globe and search engine at the ready.

We’re seperating into two teams: Ice and Snow. Our teams have several ways to earn points:

1. a point is raised for every story that is played in your venue that is discussed during the ceremonies. For example, if there is a story about Shaun White, who snowboards, then the Outside team earns a point because its a snow-related story. When NBC presents a story on a the history of ice hockey, the Ice team earns a point.
2. Additionally, as each country is presented during the parade, our teams will divide the countries among them. In order to earn a right to points from that team, they have to find the team on a map, and push a thumb tack in the team’s color onto the map. Then when their team wins a medal, they’ll receive points for their team.

Our party will be so busy! While we enjoy the opening ceremonies, we’re also going to learn a bit about unfamiliar sports and countries using Kid Rex, a child-safe search engine I recently stumbled.

Of course, the game doesn’t end after the ceremony, and each day of the Olympics we’ll gather around the computer and chart the latest medals.

Now, every party planner needs a deco and meal plan, as well as a guest list. Want to host one, too? We’re keeping it simple only one additional guest outside our household: my sister who is visiting for the weekend. That will give us 6 players, an easy separation into 2 teams.

For dinner we’re planning a typical Friday night pizza party, but we’re making it festive first with Aunt Debbie’s Pizza Dip, which is similar to this one. For decoration, we’re hanging the map and a posterboard chart to chart the winning points. We’ll also have Olympic plates, napkins and cups. And hanging from the ceiling, the Olympic Rings, of course!

© 2010, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

About Julie Meyers Pron

Julie Meyers Pron has written 894 post in this blog.

mom of 3 and wife, Julie is a former elementary school teacher and a Public Relations manager. She is the owner/editor of Just Precious, founding partner of Just Centsible, and a team member of Splash Creative Media. Julie is a PTOer, volunteer, elementary educator and that's just the beginning of the list!

• View all posts by Julie Meyers Pron →
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook