Winter Olympics

Home , 2014 Winter Olympics, Bobsleigh, Freestyle skiing, Winter Olympic Games, Winter Paralympic Games

© 2014 Universal Uclick Winter Olympics and Paralympics from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick Going to the Games The games begin Female short-track speedskaters from After years of preparation and China, the United training, thousands of athletes from States and South all over Korea race around the world a curve at the Vancouver Winter are ready Olympics in 2010. to hit the “Short tracks” are snow and the same size as ice for the 22nd Winter Olympic Games a hockey rink. In Sochi, there are in Sochi, Russia. 12 medal events in This week, The Mini Page takes a speedskating and look at some of the hard work that eight more in short- track speedskating. has taken place to hold this 18-day photos courtesy Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee sporting event, as well as the Winter • 7: Total number of sports in • 294: Total Paralympic Games, which will be the Winter Games: skating, skiing, number of gold, held in Sochi in March. We start with bobsleigh, luge, biathlon, hockey and silver and bronze looking at the Winter Olympics by the curling. medals that will be numbers: • 15: Total number of sports awarded at the Sochi • 2,409: The number of days that disciplines (DIH-seh-plenz), or types Olympics. have passed since Sochi was awarded of competitions. For example, the • 7: The number the 2014 Winter Olympics on July 4, sport of skiing includes six disciplines: of gold medals that 2007, and the start of competition. alpine, freestyle, snowboarding, cross- will contain pieces Medals for the Sochi Olympics Sochi was selected as host over country, ski jumping and Nordic of a meteorite that weigh 16 ounces Pyeongchang, South Korea, and combined (cross-country skiing and ski impacted near (1 pound) each. Salzburg, Austria. Pyeongchang was jumping). the Russian city They contain later selected to host the 2018 Winter • 98: Total number of medal events of Chelyabinsk in silver and polycarbonate Olympics. at the 2014 Olympics. Many sports 2013, injuring 1,000 and are plated • 2,500-plus: The number of and disciplines have competitions for people. These “cosmic with gold. athletes expected to compete in Sochi. both women and men. medals” will go to the • 86: Qualifying nations that This will be the first Olympics in winners of the seven medal events on will participate in the 2014 Winter which women will compete in ski Feb. 15 — the one-year anniversary of Olympics (as of early January). jumping. the impact. ®

A pictogram (PIC-toe-gram) is a 1. Alpine skiing symbol that represents something. 2. Biathlon For example, in ancient times, people 3. Bobsleigh drew pictograms (or pictographs) 4. Cross-country on rock walls to tell stories about skiing their lives. With each Olympics, pictograms D E F 5. Curling are used to identify the events. 6. Freestyle skiing The Mini Page challenges you to a — halfpipe matching game! Try to match these 7. Nordic

pictograms to their sporting events. combined

combined, I. Cross-country skiing Cross-country I. combined, 8. Short-track

F. Biathlon, G. Skeleton, H. Nordic Nordic H. Skeleton, G. Biathlon, F.

Bobsleigh, E. Freestyle skiing — halfpipe, halfpipe, — skiing Freestyle E. Bobsleigh, speedskating

speedskating, C. Alpine skiing, D. D. skiing, Alpine C. speedskating, 9. Skeleton Answers: A. Curling, B. Short-track Short-track B. Curling, A. Answers: G H I images courtesy Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee

from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick TM Basset Brown try ’n’ the news ready resources Hound’s Winter Olympics find The Mini Page provides ideas for Words that remind us of the Winter Olympics are hidden in the block below. Some words are hidden backward or diagonally, and some letters are used twice. websites, books or other resources that will help See if you can find: ATHLETES, BRONZE, DISABILITY, DISCIPLINE, EVENT, you learn more about this week’s topics. GOLD, HOST, MASCOT, MEDAL, METEORITE, NATIONS, OLYMPICS, PARALYMPICS, PICTOGRAM, SILVER, SOCHI, SPIRIT, SPORT, WINTER. On the Web: E W S K M A R G O T C I P S M • sochi2014.com/en Good Luck to our O T D I S A B I L I T Y V P E • olympic.org/sochi-2014-winter-olympics athLetes! L S I M L E N I L P I C S I D At the library: Y N Y R A V T W I H C O S R A • “Olympics” by Chris Oxlade M O N F O S E E I X D H T I L P I Q C Z E C R L N K L S T B • “Amazing Olympic Records” by Paul Hoblin I T N E V E T O J H T R O P S • “Freeze Frame: A Photographic History of the C A B R O N Z E T C T E H G L Winter Olympics” by Sue Macy S N U W S C I P M Y L A R A P ®

TM TM Rookie Cookie’s Recipe Mini Spy . . . Hot and Cold Potato Salad Mini Spy is competing in speedskating in Sochi. See if You’ll need: you can find: • exclamation mark • snake • 4 cups cooked potatoes, cubed • 2 tablespoons mustard • letter A • canoe • banana • ruler • 1 small onion, chopped • 1/2 cup mayonnaise • penguin • lips • kite • word MINI • 3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped • 1 cup sour cream • teapot • carrot • duck • number 2 • 1 cup carrots, shredded and chopped • 1 teaspoon dried dill weed • 1/4 cup vinegar • salt and pepper to taste • mushroom • letter H • tooth • letter D What to do: 1. Combine potatoes, onion, eggs and carrots in a medium bowl. 2. In a small saucepan, heat the vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise and sour cream. 3. Pour the dressing over the potato salad mixture. 4. Add the dill weed, salt and pepper. Serve hot or cold. Serves 6-8.

You will need an adult’s help with this recipe. from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick Meet Rainbow Beast Brian Gorman, Marcus Stoesz and Jen Aldrich founded the band Rainbow Beast. Their first CD is “Tales From the Monstrosity Scrolls.” They write, perform and produce songs for kids. They run a music and creativity school in San Francisco.

photo by Kristen Sard Brian taught himself to drum when he and Marcus, Jen and Brian a group of other musicians began playing their own songs on the streets in Japan. He was in Japan teaching English. He played in several bands in San Francisco. Marcus started writing songs when he was 5 years old. He took piano lessons and played in bands in high school. He studied music in college and later toured with a band. He also taught special education in public schools. As a little girl, Jen traveled with her mom in a motor home around the United States. When she was 11, she and her friends formed a band. She studied fiction writing in college and started producing her own Web magazines. She began writing songs and playing in bands. from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick

Supersport: Steven Holcomb All the following jokes have something in common. Height: 5-10 Birthdate: 4-14-80 Can you guess the common theme or category? Weight: 231 Hometown: Park City, Utah These days, the world looks bright and the future Olivia: What happened when the downhill skier promising for U.S. bobsled driver Steven Holcomb. It hasn’t raced a rabbit? always been this way. Holcomb once was nearly blind, Oscar: He won by a hare! but after a special surgery several years ago, his vision improved dramatically. So did his racing career. He steered the four-man team to gold medals in the 2010 World Cup Oakley: Where do the strongest ants like and 2010 Winter Olympics. Now Holcomb will be going for the gold again to go when they are hungry? in this month’s games. Odessa: To the Olympicnics! Thankful for his sight and success, he produced a book: “But Now I See: My Journey From Blindness to Olympic Gold.” Octavio: What was the champion sneezer Holcomb also has served in the Utah National Guard and is continuing awarded at the Olympics? his studies in the computer field. But now it’s time to zoom down that curving bobsled track — perhaps to glory again. Odette: A cold medal! ®

from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick The Olympic Spirit Russian Paralympic athletes Vladimir Kiselev (left), Irek Zaripov (center) and Roman Petushkov (right) celebrate after medaling in biathlon during the 2010 Vancouver Paralympic Special symbols Winter Games. Each host of the Olympics creates mascots to represent their city, their nation and the “Olympic spirit.” This spirit, or feeling, is that the Olympic athletes come together to compete in peace, friendship and fairness. Sochi has five mascots in all. The photos courtesy Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee Bear, the Hare and the Leopard, Paralympic Games let athletes shine mascots for the Olympic Games, are Following the Winter Olympics, Paralympic history friendly animals who enjoy many Sochi will also host the 2014 different sports and love to dance The Paralympic Paralympic Winter Games from Movement began in and play. March 7 to March 16. According to 1960 in Rome, where Paralympians are athletes with 400 athletes from 23 Paralympic lore, physical, visual Snowflake and nations competed in or intellectual* wheelchairs. The first Ray of Light are disabilities. cosmic visitors from other planets. Winter Games were They are held in Sweden in They traveled to Earth to explore the classified, unkown. Once here, they discovered 1976. or assigned, This year, 700 athletes from that even though they were different into various from the people of Earth, they 45 countries will take part in the groups, where Snowflake and Ray of 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in also had many things in common. they compete They now want to teach humans Light are the mascots Sochi, competing in 72 events in five against athletes for the 2014 Winter sports: alpine skiing, cross-country to discover and use their wonderful with similar Paralympic Games. skills, no matter what they may be. skiing, ice sledge hockey, wheelchair skills and limitations. For example, curling and biathlon (cross-country a vision-impaired skier will compete skiing and target shooting). Para- Look in your newspaper for listings of against other vision-impaired snowboarding will make its debut as Olympic and Paralympic coverage. Which Paralympians. a Paralympic event. sports do you plan to watch? Do you * Intellectual (in-teh-LEHK-chu-wuhl) participate in any of the winter sports refers to a person’s ability to think using Next week, The Mini Page is all about the included in the 2014 games? facts and knowledge. Great Backyard Bird Count. The Mini Page Staff Betty Debnam - Founding Editor and Editor at Large Lisa Tarry - Managing Editor Lucy Lien - Associate Editor Wendy Daley - Artist Read about the Winter Olympics image courtesy Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee in ®

(Note to Editor: Above is camera- ready, one column-by-31/2-inch ad promoting Issue 5.)

release dates: February 1-7

from The Mini Page © 2014 Universal Uclick ® Standards Spotlight: Going to the Games Mini Page activities meet many state and national educational standards. Each week we identify standards that relate to The Mini Page’s content and offer activities that will help your students reach them. This week’s standard: • Students understand that physical activity provides opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and social interaction. (Physical Education) Activities: 1. Look at the pictograms in The Mini Page. Put a check by the five events you would most like to see. Explain your choices. 2. In your newspaper, find local athletes who show some of the same skills as those needed by the athletes in the Winter Olympics. Describe the different skills. 3. In your newspaper, circle all the winter sports equipment you can find. 4. How do these contribute to the Winter Olympics: (a) Bear, Hare and Leopard, (b) meteorite, (c) Paralympics, and (d) pictograms? 5. Use newspaper photos to create an album of your favorite winter athletes. (standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)

(Note to Editor: Above is the Standards for Issue 5.) (Note to Editor: Above is copy block for Page 3, Issue 5, to be used in place of ad if desired.)

Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®.