Let’s Play Along With the Winter Olympics 2026

As the 2026 Olympics begins in Italy, we’re getting excited to watch all of the athletes compete on snow and ice…and we’re excited for all of the learning opportunities for little ones watching the Winter Games from home.

Here are 10 ways that families can learn, play, and create together at home with their babies, toddlers, or preschoolers as they root for the athletes in Italy:

10 Ways to Learn Through Play During the Olympics

Where IS that on a map? Look up the athletes’ home countries. How far is that from where WE live?
How many athletes do we see? There are 93 countries competing in the Olympics. The USA has 223 athletes, but many countries have just one or two competing. Count how many are competing for each country!
What IS persistence? Ask your child how you think the athlete gets up even after a hard fall … and keeps going! What can WE learn from them?
Did you know there’s a brand new sport in this year’s Olympics? It’s called Skimo, which is short for ski mountaineering. It’s a demanding sport combining climbing and skiing. Can WE create a new game of our own that combines two things we love to play together?
Let’s learn to say “Hello” in the different languages spoken by the Olympians! From “hola” to “Nǐ hǎo,” the many athletes competing against each other in Italy have different ways of saying “hi.” Let’s try to learn to say “hello” like they do.
Let’s design our own Olympic Outfits! Team USA is wearing Ralph Lauren’s cozy Americana (red, white, blue, winter white), Team Italy is in Armani’s elegant snowy hues (milky white, bold bomber), and Canada is wearing Lululemon’s topographical designs. If WE were going to design a uniform to represent OUR community, what would it look like? Let’s draw!
Baby Bobsled: Let’s go for a ride! Sit on the floor with your legs outstretched and lay your baby on your legs for tummy time. Pretend you’re sliding on the ice.
Penguin Biathlon: Pretend to be penguins competing in the Winter Olympics biathlon! Invite your child to hold a small pillow or soft ball between their knees and waddle across the room to the basket. Toss in the ball and then waddle back. How fast can you go?
Animal Bobsled: Choose toy animals as “athletes.” Then work together to create sleds out of boxes and a track from a piece of cardboard propped against stairs or a couch. Now work with your child to time the teams of stuffed animal athletes as they sled down the track — two animals per sled!
Olympic Ring Art: The Olympic Rings symbolize athletes from all 5 continents and many different countries coming together to compete. Let’s make a sculpture inspired by the olympic rings! Let’s cut these cardboard tubes into rings. We can use paint or markers to color them blue, black, red, yellow, and green like the real olympic rings. Let’s use glue to create a sculpture with our colored rings! Should we arrange them flat on our paper or stack them high? Let’s create!