With their game faces on, students in Liz Held and Beth Noon’s third-grade classes at James H. Boyd Intermediate School used their math and science skills to compete in the annual Potato Olympics.

Prior to the opening ceremonies of the event, students studied the Olympic games in their classrooms. They read nonfiction articles about various components of the Olympics including athletes, symbols, history, the Para Olympics and athletic events then incorporated what they learned into a written assignment.  

On the day of the big event, students decorated a potato to resemble an athletic competitor and created a name and history for their Potato Olympian. While working cooperatively with teammates, students coached their Olympians through activities at eight different stations. Each station was designed and aligned to the Common Core to sharpen their math and science skills.

Students, with their competitors, participated in Olympic games that resembled luge, bowling, curling, high dive and the potato weigh-in. Additionally, third-graders visited the potato taste test station where they tried potatoes in different forms.

Medals were awarded to each Olympian at the closing ceremonies. As a culminating activity, the children recorded some of their statistics onto the back of their Olympian’s trading card and wrote about their experience at this "spud"tacular event.