1. Theme music

This really set the tone. If you want class to sound like the Olympics, you need the anthem! Music can help set students' minds in a place and time they recognize.

Every day of the Spanish class Olympics, as students walked in the room, I played the NBC theme music for the Olympics: Bugler's Theme by Leo Arnaud.

2. A leaderboard

Gamification is a hot topic in education right now. When we can bring game elements into learning, it can be very motivating for students.

I created a leaderboard in Google Drawings and updated it every day. We used three teams because the math seemed to work well for the class sizes and the arrangement of the games. 

To schedule the whole week, I picked five games my Olympic teams would play. You'll see some of the games in the sections below, but a week might look like this:

• Monday (Game 1): Trashketball
• Tuesday (Game 2): Trashketball (they REALLY liked trashketball)
• Wednesday (Game 3): Row wars
• Thursday (Game 4): Flyswatters
• Friday (Game 5): Kahoot!

The winner of each game (the gold medalist!) got five points. Second place (silver medalist) got three points. Third place (bronze medalist) got one point. Any of these suggestions can be modified to fit your class best.

I kept track of the overall scores on the leaderboard and showed the leaderboard at the beginning of class each day of the Olympic games.

Make a copy of the Olympics review leaderboard (Google Drawings)

3. Game: Trashketball

That's a combination of a trash can and basketball. (I'm from Indiana. Basketball is life.)

We set up a trash can at one end of the room. (Trash bag and all the trash taken out, of course.)

Using pieces of string, we created shooting lines for different point values. We split the class into three teams. (Again, sticking with the three teams in the overall Olympics theme.)

Working together, the teams answered questions. If they answered correctly, they got a point and got to choose a line to shoot from. The farther from the trash can, the more points they were worth.

Over time, we added lots of new rules.

LIFELINES: For one, we started using "lifelines" like in the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." One lifeline was "step" -- take a big step forward before shooting. Another lifeline was "reshoot" -- shoot a missed shot again. The team only got to do this once per game, and we kept track of lifelines on the class whiteboard.

POINT MULTIPLIERS: At some point, a student asked, "What happens if I bounce it in -- on purpose?" I thought for a second and said, "Double points." They liked that!

Later, another student asked, "What if I bank it off the chalkboard?" This was hard because the chalkboard was running alongside the trash can. I said, "Double points." 😁

Then, another excited student asked, "Wait ... what if I bank it off the chalkboard AND bounce it in?" "Double double points ... quadruple points."  😆

What I loved about this was that my students came up with the special rules to the game. I suggested things. They suggested things. We decided the rules as a group. That made the game special!

You can use my special rules -- or suggest them to your students -- if you want. Or, as time goes on, you and your students can come up with new rules little by little. It's fun and it builds community!

4. Game: Row wars

This is a fast-paced small-group game that can get the adrenaline pumping! It's great for quick "term and definition" practice.

TEAM ORGANIZATION FOR OLYMPICS: Usually, I like to break the class into six groups. However, with a three-team Olympics format, that can be kind of tricky. 

• If I had a class of 18 or more, that means each Olympic team has six or more students. In that case, I divided each Olympic team into two smaller teams. Example: Olympic Team 1 was divided into Team 1-1 and Team 1-2. 
• If I had a class of 17 or fewer, that means each team has six or fewer students. In that case, we just kept the same three Olympic teams.

GAME PLAY: Teams would sit down in columns. Each team needs at least three players, and if there are more than three, they can sit behind the other players on their team and sub in and out during each round (more on that later) ...

I distributed a slip of paper face down to the first person from each team (and they wrote their team number on the back). For each round of the row wars game, I picked five words for students to define. (This game works well for basic recall questions ... anything that can be done quickly!)

The slip of paper looked something like this ... (except I put the vocabulary words in place of "round 1 word 1", etc.)

Make a copy of the Row Wars cards (Google Docs)

When I said "go" ...

• the first person on the team flips the sheet over, looks at the questions, answers one (just one!) and passes it back to the second person on the team
• the second person answers one (just one!) question and passes it back to the third person
• third person answers and passes up to second person
• second person answers and passes up to first person
• first person answers the final question and puts the slip of paper on a chair or desk in front of their group (the yellow squares in the diagram above)

Here's how the scoring works:

• Points for order of finish: First team done gets 6 points. Second team done gets 5 points. Third team done gets 4 points. (And on and on and on.)
• Points for answers: Each incorrect answer subtracts a point from the total.
• You can't get a negative score.
• Example: A team finishes third, so they start with four points. They get two questions wrong, so you subtract two points. They get two points for that round.

Tally the scores and add them to the team's running total. Play as many rounds as you'd like. We usually play six rounds.

When the game is over, determine a winner:

• With 18 or more students: Add the scores of the both sub-teams together to get the team's final score. (i.e. If Team 1-1 had 16 points and Team 1-2 had 14 points, add them together for a final Olympic Team 1 score of 30.)
• With 17 or fewer students: The team's final score is the team's final score. 🙂

5. Game: Flyswatters

This is another fun one to practice vocabulary or quick questions. Display a grid of terms on a projector screen (or write them on sticky notes and put them on the board). It looks something like this (fill in your own terms, of course) ...

Copy the flyswatter game grid for your projector screen (Google Docs)

You'll need two flyswatters. I've always kept several in my room just in case one is misplaced or if one breaks during an exceptionally lively game. (It has happened!)

Ideally, this is a two-team game, where a student from each team stands on opposite sides of the projector screen. When you call out a definition, the first player to swat the term gets the point. (In Epic Review Olympics, just rotate the teams at the screen ... Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 2 vs. Team 3, Team 3 vs. Team 1 and on and on and on ...)

When a team swats the correct term, it gets a point. I will print a sheet of the terms and use it for two things -- to cross off terms as I call them AND to tally score for the teams. (If you want to go through the terms twice, put a line through the word the first time and then put an X through it the second time.)

6: Game: Kahoot!, Quizizz, Quizlet Live, Gimkit, Blooket ...

When I started playing the Spanish Class Olympics, Kahoot! (kahoot.com) was still a newer game. (I know, I know ... makes me look old, right???)

Since then, lots of similar review games have been released that work in this Olympics review format, like ...

• Quizizz (quizizz.com)
• Quizlet Live (quizlet.com)
• Gimkit (gimkit.com)
• Blooket (blooket.com)

When I used these games in the Spanish class Olympics, we'd play full-class games where each student played independently. (We didn't group students into Olympics teams.)

When the game was over, I would figure out each Olympic team's top three finishers. The place for each finisher became their score, and we added the top three scores. The goal was to get the lowest score. 

Example:

• Team 1's three best finishers were 2nd, 4th and 7th
• Team 2's three best finishers were 1st, 5th and 6th
• Team 3's three best finishers were 3rd, 8th and 9th
• Add the places for all three teams (Team 1: 2+4+7=13, Team 2: 1+5+6=12, Team 3: 3+8+9=20).
• The lowest score is first, next lowest is second and highest is third. (In our example, Team 2 is first, Team 1 is second and Team 3 is third.)

If you're looking for more of a team effort, several of these review game platforms have a "play by team" option. That could simplify the scoring for the Olympics.