Category: Holidays & Celebrations

Summer and Winter Olympics music activities bring the exciting worldwide event into your classroom. Let’s look at the Summer, Winter, and Para Games, and then other general Olympic-themed resources for the elementary music classroom.

The Playlist

Olympics Overview, History, and Traditions

Olympics music activities need to begin with an overview of the event with its history and traditions!

Timeline of Upcoming Summer and Winter Olympics

• 2024 Summer Games-July 26-August 11, 2024-Paris, France
• 2026 Winter Games-February 6-February 22, 2026-Milan, Italy
• 2028 Summer Games-July 14-July 30, 2028-Los Angeles, California
• 2030 Winter Games-February 8-February 24, 2030-TBD
• Summer Games-July 23-August 8, 2032-Brisbane, Australia

What are the Olympics?

The Olympics are the leading international sporting events representing nations around the world. The Games are held every four years alternating every two years between the Summer and Winter Games.

The Olympics for Kids With Jack Hartmann

History of the Olympic Games By BYJU’s

What are the Paralympics?

According to the IPC (International Paralympics Committee), the first Paralympic competition was in 1948 and was for wheelchair athletes. Called the Stoke Mandeville Games, 16 injured servicemen and women competed in archery.

There are currently 28 sports, 22 summer and six winter, but can change from one event to another.

According to the International Olympic Committee, “Taking place every four years in the same year as the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games have since grown into one of the world’s biggest sport events, with a track record for driving social inclusion.”

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Olympic Symbols

Some of our Olympics music activities are directly tied to the symbols of the games.

• Olympic Rings-5 interlocking rings in blue, yellow, black, green, and red. Designed by Coubertin in 1913, they represent the 5 inhabited continents and if counting the field of white they are on, also represent the 6 colors used in nation flags. The rings are the design on the Olympic flag.
• Flame & Torch-The Olympic flame is ignited in Olympia, Greece some weeks or months before the opening ceremony of the games at the host location. The torch is ceremonially relayed until it reaches the host site during the opening ceremony.
• Nation Flags are part of the games to show the country of each participating athlete. Flags and national anthems are a big part of the medal ceremony.
• Medals-The Olympic medals are gold (1st), silver (2nd), and bronze (3rd).

Olympic-Themed Routines & Procedures

Kids LOVE games so why not keep that Olympic theme going all year long with a We Are the Champions activity that helps teach routines and procedures. First, the teacher determines the gold, silver, and bronze requirements for a routine or procedure and then the class wins one of the medals.

Olympic Music Activities

Olympics Music Traditions

There have been many songs, anthems, hymns, and music works commissioned throughout the years. Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable ones. Classic fm also has a great chronological list of songs with videos.

Notable Olympic Songs & Arrangement Links

Links are to sheet music or octavo options.

• “Reach” by Gloria Estefan and Diane Warren for the 1996 Closing Ceremonies in Atlanta.
• “One Moment In Time” sung by Whitney Huston, written by Albert Hammond for the 1988 Winter Games in Seoul.
• “Light the Fire Within” from the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games was sung by Lee Ann Grimes and written by David Foster and Linda Thompson. Here’s an arrangement by Mac Huff.
• “Dare to Dream” was sung at the 2002 Summer Olympics in Australia and sung by Olivia Newton-John.
• “Furusato” is a popular Japanese children’s song and was sung at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. Here’s a beautiful arrangement of it.

Olympics Music Instrumental Pieces

Bugler’s Dream

Bugler’s Dream was written in 1958 by Leo Arnaud and is well known because of its use in television coverage by ABC and NBC. Here’s a choral version arranged by Mark Hayes. Most performances today use the John Williams arrangement that combines Bugler’s Dream with his Olympic Fanfare and Theme.

Bugler’s Dream by the US Army Herald Trumpets

Bugler’s Dream Theme on Recorder

Summon the Heroes

Another favorite, Summon the Heroes, was written by John Williams for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Olympic Fanfare by John Williams

For the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, John Williams composed Olympic Fanfare and Theme. In 1996, a new arrangement was created using part of Arnaud’s “Bugler’s Dream.”

Olympics Music Activity: Parachute Routine to Olympic Fanfare

This mp3 is from the old Grade 2 Share the Music textbook.

INTRO
Tympani intro: march in place
OPENING THEME
up and down to beat
SECTION 1
a. For16 quarter note beats-step to right a. 16 beats-step to left (walk to beat right, b. For 16 beats up and down (slow 8 count or quicker 4 count for up/down/up/down) a. 16 beats to the right
B’: up and down (2 slow or 4 quick)
SECTION 2
Parachute up and stays up as several chosen cross from one side of the parachute to the other. (4 counts) Parchute down for 4 counts.
REPEAT 3 more times
SECTION 1 (repeat above)
OPENING THEME (repeat above)

Who is John Williams?

John Williams is one of the greatest and most prolific composers in the 21st century!

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Movement

Project a pictogram of sports (summer or winter) and have students “show” the sport in motion to the beat of the Olympic Fanfare. Add a Freeze Dance and movement statue idea by stopping the music at certain points.

Here are the images for the Summer Games in France.

The Music Olympics Classroom Activity

Use Olympic sports as inspiration for The Music Olympics. It can coincide with a world game event or not. Use a mix of summer and winter sports or keep it seasonal.

• Track Relay-this can be any type of relay from identifying or playing rhythms, melodies, notes, instrument pictures, etc. Curling-Tape a giant treble clef to the floor and use a Dollar Tree mop and plastic bowl as your equipment. Teams get points for getting their bowl closest to the “G” curl.
• Speed Sports-individuals navigate one at a time to a pile of notes or music phrases, bringing them back to their team. When they have them all, they arrange or order them and first team to complete the task wins. (Treble clef notes could spell a word, rhythms could add up to a number, music phrases to a song that need to be in correct order) The speed sports could be skating (paper plates for skates), kayak (PE scooters), bobsledding (squatting kid in laundry basket with team mate pushing them).
• Weight Lifting-The stronger survives! All are sitting in a circle with one student standing behind another. Teacher holds up and object and the first of the two “lifters” to identify it, moves on. If it’s the standing person, they move one person to their right/left. If it’s the sitting person, they exchange with the loser and the winner moves one person to their right/left. I’ve played with instruments and rhythms. Instruments can be as easy as getting a grocery bag and putting in claves, maracas, cowbell, etc. and pulling them out one at a time. You could declare a “winner” if they win 5 or 10 times or they need to make it around the entire circle.
• Archery or Shooting Targets-Two teams and bean bags. Since the bean bags aren’t going to stick, you’ll need to call it as it hits. Or, position the target on the floor.

An Olympics-Themed Music Concert

• Opening Ceremony-Entrance to Olympic Fanfare-Processional with flags.
• Song from Past Olympics
• National Anthem of Hosting Country
• Composed Song about the Olympics
• Folk Song from Hosting Country
• Song from Past Olympics
• Composed Song about the Olympics
• Closing Ceremony-Recessional with flags to Summon the Heroes

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National Anthems Olympic Music Activities

Since National Anthems play such a huge part in the awards ceremonies, refresh singing your country’s national anthem and

• Learn the national anthem of the host country
• Let your students choose two countries and learn the anthems
• Then extend this into a unit, letting partners research a country’s anthem and present it to the class. Finally, at the end, play a game where you play the anthem and students (individually or in teams) guess the country based on remembering it from the presentations.
• For a creative approach, use the power of AI to create your own national anthem using Suno!
  • My prompt was: “Create a stately national anthem with lots of brass instruments for the nation of Musicopolis where there’s creativity, fun, and learning with music.” (use “nation” instead of “country” or your national anthem will have a distinct country genre feel to it.) 😊 Here are the two created examples. Song 1 and Song 2.

Composed Songs for the Olympics

Let the Games Begin

A cute little song about the games beginning, winning the gold, ready, set, go, and an optional kazoo “fanfare.”

You Are the Light (based on Bugler’s Dream)

A choral take on Bugler’s Dream with that grand feel in the accompaniment and melody line.

MK8 We Go for the Gold

A song kit from MusicK8!

Winter Olympics Music Activities

Would You Rather? Winter Olympics Music Activity

Summer Olympics Music Activities

Dressage Movement Activity

Show some video of dressage, highlighting the horse’s movements. These include high steps, locomotion, non-locomotion, sidesteps, walking, cantering with changes of tempo, and length of step. Pathways include straight, curvy, circles. The motions change with the music.

The assignment is to take a pool noodle horse (decorate it if desired) and in groups create a routine to a piece of music. The goal is to change the movement based on the form of the piece. Google pool noodle horse and you’ll find lots of images from simple to elaborate!

A basic pop song would have intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-outro. Share your routine and the other groups can “judge” you with a 1-10 rating! Kids will love it and you can assess musical form.

Olympic Decor, Decorations, and Bulletin Boards

The wall image is in my classroom!

I used it year-round so that when we talked about music from around the world, we could look for the flag! The colors pop and putting it up high beautifully uses space that is too high for many other posters or signs.

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