Unit World Olympics, p. 188
Lesson Name Showing Sportspersonship Towards Others
Grade Band

Elementary (Grades 3-5)

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

Required Materials
  • Cut multiple colors of yarn, lanyard string or leather string for bracelets or for necklaces. Alternatively, cut elastic string for bracelets.

  • Have acrylic beads in multiple colors and sizes. (Younger students will find working with medium-sized beads easier.)

  • Have enough small plastic containers to allow each student to take beads back to their desk or table.

  • Teachers are encouraged to visit a craft store or go online to see the multitude of craft supplies that may be added to a necklace, such as pre-drilled wood shapes that may also be personally decorated with paint or markers.

  • For cards, have markers, crayons, construction paper, glue, craft shapes (if desired), and different colors of cardstock cut into card-sized pieces.

  • Have paint and/or other kinds of markers depending on whether wood or other drawable/paintable shapes are to be used.

  • Prepare FINDER index cards for pairing students to give goodwill gifts to one another. If there are an odd number of students in the class, then the teacher must make a gift and card and include themselves as a number in the deck. To create a deck for 20 students, number the index cards 1 to 10 and add the word “find.” Then arbitrarily put in one of the numbers between 11 and 20 making sure not to repeat a number.

2 find 19

1 find 12

  • Make a second deck of NUMBER index cards numbered 1 to 20.

Standards / Competencies

CASEL Core Competencies

  • Self-Awareness

  • Self-Management

  • Social Awareness

  • Relationship Skills

Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards

  • Listening and Speaking

NCSS Social Studies Themes

  • Individual Development and Identity 

Recommended Time 1 hour
Essential Question Why is it important for us to show goodwill toward the members of other teams?
Learning Objectives
  • Explain what goodwill is

  • Recognize how professional sports teams practice goodwill at the end of games

  • Create goodwill gifts to show their friendly feelings to other students during the classroom, school-wide or program-wide Olympics

Activating Prior Knowledge

Ask students what they think the term goodwill means. Work with students to get a definition that indicates that goodwill is friendly, helpful, or cooperative feelings or attitudes.

Ask students by a show of hands how many have watched a baseball, basketball, football, or hockey game in person or on the TV.

Ask: In all these sports, what do the players of the winning and the losing team do at the end of a game?

Ask: Why do you think they line up and shake hands or high five each other after they have just played hard against one another?

Ask: Why do you think that sometimes we see players grasp each other’s arms or embrace one another or pat an opponent on the back at the end of the game?

Ask: Why do you think this is an important ritual in sports?

Core Instruction

Tell students that everyone in the class is going to make a goodwill gift to give to someone else who competes in the class, school, or program Olympics. In addition to the gift, each student will also make a card that expresses their goodwill to go along with the gift.

Tell students that they will learn who they are giving their gift to when all the gifts and cards have been made.

Remind students that they should take care to make a goodwill gift (bracelet or necklace) and a card that they themselves would treasure and want to wear.

The teacher may or may not want to ask students to decide if the class wants to pick a color theme that all gifts will use (such as school colors) or if they want to make individualized gifts.

Model (especially for younger students) how to make a knot at one end of the cord you are using and string a few beads. The teacher may (or may not) wish to use certain colors in a particular order and share with students the reason for creating this kind of design.

Tell students how much time they have to work and let them know when half the time is used so they leave enough time to design and make their cards.

Circulate around the room and offer assistance as needed.

As the students work on their gifts, the teacher can share that in many cultures, people use beaded bracelets and strands of beads as part of different kinds of practices. For example:

  • “Worry beads” are common in many parts of the Middle East and Greece. The way people use worry beads is to start by either holding the worry beads at one end or at the center of the beads. Then, they let the worry beads fall over the middle finger. When the beads are in place, they swing them back towards the arm and then swing them forward so that one end flips over the hand. (Model for students.) People who use worry beads say they really work.

  • Around the world there are other practices that help people focus. For example, in Mexico and Ancient Greece, many people have a small, flat stone which they rub to help them focus.

  • Some people believe worry beads came from prayer beads, which are used in many religions. These are beads or knots on a string that help people count their prayers. However, worry beads are not considered to be religious, even though they come from prayer beads.

A few examples of religious traditions that use beads are:

  • In Hinduism, the strand of beads used for prayer contains 108 beads. Buddhism also uses a prayer strand containing 108 beads.

  • Islam uses beads to aid counting in its prayer rituals. On a Muslim prayer strand, there are 99 beads, one for each name of God that is found within the Qur’an. Some strands have only 33 beads, which can then be used to count three repetitions adding up to 99.

  • In Catholicism, bead strands known as rosaries are an integral part of the prayer ritual. Different types of rosaries have different numbers of beads; the most popular strand holds 50 small beads (“ ave” beads) divided into groups of ten by larger “ paternoster” beads.

  • The Eastern and Greek Orthodox churches also use rosaries.

  • Lastly, the Baha’i faith also uses prayer beads: the strand of this faith contains 95 beads.

Native Americans across the Americas used images and carvings of animals and plants and objects in their jewelry as symbols important to their beliefs.

When all gifts and cards have been completed, it is time to give the cards and gifts to a recipient.

Giving the Gifts

Take the deck of NUMBER index cards (numbered 1 to 20) and distribute the cards in this deck randomly around the room to students so that each student has a number.

Take the deck of 10 FINDER cards and ask the student with number 1 to stand up. Give the student the card that says “1 find 12” (see sample above). Ask the student with number 2 to stand up and give that student the card “2 find 19” (see sample above). Repeat until all 10 FINDER cards are distributed.

Tell these 10 students to pick up their gifts and cards and find the person with the number listed on their card and go to the person’s desk.

When the 10 finder students have found their partners, give students time to exchange cards and gifts with one another.

Wrap-up

Ask students to form a circle. Tell students: We are going to go around the room twice. The first time, say one word that says how you felt getting your card and gift. The teacher should model: I felt ___. Go around the circle.

When everyone has spoken, tell the students: This time say one word that says how you felt giving your card and gift. The teacher should model: I felt ___. Go around the circle.

When the circle has been completed, thank students for creating a goodwill community.