 As excitement mounts ahead of the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, take a look back at the opening ceremony for the 2008 Games in Beijing. What shapes and patterns can you see? This activity is aimed at young primary school children at KS1. |
 Can you throw a beanbag as far as the Olympic hammer or discus throwers? This activity introduces children to informal measures to compare distances, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stage 1. |
 Who won in these different events? This is a more challenging activity for primary pupils at Key Stage 1, which helps children understand why sometimes the winner has the biggest number and sometimes the smallest. |
 Who could have won the gold, silver and bronze medals? This activity is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stage 1. |
 This activity explores shapes and circles by encouraging children to look really hard at something they will see very often in the run-up to London 2012, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stage 1. |
 What could the half-time scores have been in these Olympic hockey matches? This activity encourages systematic working and discussion, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stages 1 and 2. |
 How do you compare to these results from Olympic Games in the past if you try similar running and jumping activities? This activity uses the history of the Olympic Games to introduce ideas about measuring time and distances in standard units, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stage 2. |
 Look at the changes in results on some of the athletics track events at the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948. What will the results be in 2012? This slightly more challenging activity encourages children to examine data and consider different kinds of influencing factors, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stage 2. |
 What angles can you see in these photos of Olympic sports? Can you estimate them? This challenging activity is aimed at older primary pupils at Key Stage 2. |
 What events are there in your school sports day, and in the Olympic Games? What are your favourite races and sports? This activity encourages discussion and decisions about how to collect and display data, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stage 2. |
 During the Olympic and Paralympic Games many national flags will be on display. This activity explores 2D shapes, angles and symmetries in the context of flag designs, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stage 2. |
 Looking at the 2008 Olympic Medal table, can you see how the data is organised? Could the results be presented differently to give another nation the top place? This activity encourages children to develop their skills in data analysis, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stage 2. |
 The organisers of the Olympic Torch Relay hope that the planned route means that the Torch will come within 10 miles of 95% of the population of Britain. Has this worked? This activity can be approached at different levels by a wide range of ages from older primary school pupils to GCSE students (Key Stages 2 to 4). |
 Decide which charts and graphs represent the number of goals two football teams scored in fifteen matches. This data handling activity is designed to get children talking meaningfully about mathematics, presenting and justifying arguments, and is aimed at primary school pupils at Key Stage 2. |
 We're investigating the number of steps we would climb up or down to get out of or into the swimming pool. How could you number the steps below the water? This activity uses the familiar environment of a swimming pool to introduce negative numbers, and is designed to be accessible to primary pupils at Key Stages 1 and 2. |
 Sports such as hockey, football, basketball and tennis use balls of different sizes. Can you arrange a selection of different balls in a line each touching the next to make the shortest line? This activity offers opportunities for creative thinking and problem solving and helps pupils to understand the properties of circles. It can be presented using your school's own sports equipment and is aimed at primary school pupils (Key Stage 2). |
 After training hard, Ben and Mia have improved their performance in the long jump and high jump. Can you work out the length and height of their original jumps? This activity explores multiplication, divisions and fractions in the context of sports training, and is designed to be accessible to primary school pupils at Key Stage 2. |
