Source: WikiCommons Photographer: Dunkan Rawlinson

The 2014 Winter Olympics will start exactly one week from today; the events are being held in Sochi Russia and the preparation has been a long process! There is lots of hype about the games and I know I sure am excited! My dad and I plan to watch a lot of hockey and will definitely be cheering for Canada to take the gold! My family watched a few of the events in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics and I got the privilege of watching the gold medal game with my dad! It was such an amazing experience, and I really love how the Olympics unite people across the country and the globe!

Source: WikiCommons Photographer:Jastrow

The Olympics have been around for a long time, dating all the way back to 776 BC when they were held in dedication to the Greek Gods. Of course the events were much different back then (things like chariot racing were huge) than they are now but the premise of the games has remained the same. On the last day of the ancient Olympic games there would be an official awards ceremony held at the temple of Zeus, where the winners of certain events would receive a kotinos, which is an olive tree wreath that is placed on the victors head.

On the website my mom has designed a craft to represent the kotinos that the athletes in the ancient Olympic games would receive. When she was making her kotinos she decided to cut the leaves out of construction paper because she found it a lot faster; however, if your child is looking to get a little bit more scissor practice it would be a good idea to spend the time cutting out the template leaves. She also suggests that you use staples to attach the first row of leaves and then glue for the rest because it speeds up the process but the following rows will still cover the much less crafty staples! This is an adorable craft that your kid can wear around the house and watch the games in so they feel like an Olympic champion too!

Olympic Olive Tree Crown on DLTK’s Crafts for Kids