I grew up in southern Indiana, just outside of Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is the home of The Kentucky Derby so I grew up surrounded by the excitement, the glamour, and the fun of the Derby. I love the Derby and I loved Derby time in Louisville. It was so much fun. And the horses are incredible. I also grew up on a farm with horses (yeah…shocker, I’m a corn fed farm boy!) so I love the horses. And here I am in Music City and I want to bring that Derby fun to my ‘staches. And no we’re not betting the ponies….
Today we watched a replay of last year’s Derby. People, they cheered those horses. They were on their feet having a blast. It was more excitement than I expected. Then we watched a video of the Derby hats. And this I did not expect: anytime a big, bright, flashy hat came on the video, they yelled: “THAT’S MR. GREG’S HAT!” True story. Do they know me well or what?!?!
After the video we did a graphing activity to predict who would win this year’s Derby. I looked at the 20 horses running in the Derby and chose the 6 most kinder friendly names. And the one who was my favorite. We studied their names and their colors and made an informed decision.
We made our pics for Derby 2014!
And then we graphed our data and we analyzed our data. Of course, we left the winner box empty because we won’t know until Saturday who the winner is.
What I love about this is that I get to bring some Kentucky Derby into my classroom while meeting Common Core standards and the activity can be extended to the home. The ‘staches can sit down and watch the Derby with their families just like I used to do on the first Saturday of every May!
Click the picture to snag your free Kentucky Derby Graphing activity for your class!
