McCullough Elementary School’s third-grade students participated in a Math Olympics competition to wrap up the 2020-2021 school year. Teacher Cathy Suman, with help from Student Learning Assistant Laura Kerestes, designed the lesson to provide a thorough review of all the math skills learned during the year.
Students were divided into nine teams representing the countries of the United States, Mexico, Switzerland, France, Japan, Costa Rica, Greece, Italy, and Canada. After an opening ceremony, the competitions began with students vying for gold, silver, and bronze medals.
In one event, Musical Math Line Up, the students solved math facts and then they had to run to a numbered circle to earn points. Just like musical chairs, a circle was removed in each round. The whole team was responsible for keeping the points earned and adding them up. In another, Balloon Pop, the students had to pop balloons of opponents and collect the word problems. Then each team worked together to solve the problems and earn points.
“It was such a fun experience to wrap up the school year”, said Mrs. Suman. “Each day the students came into class excited to see what events were scheduled. The kids absolutely loved it and learned so much about the Olympics, in addition to practicing all their math skills from third grade.”