Kentucky Derby Fun, Ideas, & Freebies!

It's that time of year again - post-spring break THE KENTUCKY DERBY! Now, my whole life, I never thought about celebrating the KY Derby because I grew up in Mississippi. We didn't have horse races there, so it was never a big deal. I mean, I'd heard of it, but it was more of a historic, cultural event that you studied about and just kind of knew about, but when you live in Louisville, Kentucky (the home of Churchill Downs and the Derby), you ARE part of the celebration whether you like it or not. I must say, we LOVE it. It's the best time of year to live here....but I'm dragging on and on.

I have some Kentucky Derby freebies for you in case you want to celebrate it with your class, but before I share those, I wanted to share some of our past Derby pictures and experiences...Here goes a walk down Memory Lane! :)

Now, when you think of the KY Derby, you probably picture images like...

or

but when you are a poor teacher, you can only afford tickets to the infield. You experience the KY Derby a little differently. Here's a look at my experiences!

2007 - my first Derby!

2008 - the best Derby

All of my friends got to come from out of town. Even our friends in town went with us. It was like a big family (but friends) reunion!

my best friend, Amanda and her (now) husband, Brian

my best friend, Amanda and me (we've been friends since 5th grade!)

It gets REALLY hot at Derby. In the mornings, it's usually cool and almost ALWAYS raining, but in the afternoons, we are sweating and shedding jackets, raincoats, etc!

This is my friend, Katherine and me

The gang being silly

More silliness and fun ensues

Seriously, that was the last time I really went to Derby. My husband and his buddies from Alabama go every year. I chill at home with my son and usually some of my girlfriends come over and we have a special Derby lunch. It's much more exciting to be there and watch it, but as soon as that race is over, I'm always so glad that I'm at home watching it on my TV in amazing hi-def!

ANYWAY, if you stuck around this long, you deserve some KY Derby ideas & freebies!

Some things we do at school...

1. Our kindergartners decorate shoe box "floats" - any kind of theme imaginable. They make these at home with parents' help. Then at school, they make Derby hats. Usually, the teacher buys some Dollar Tree visors or caps and they use all kinds of crafts to decorate them - flowers, leaves, stickers, craft foam shapes, miniature pinwheels, roses (the signature flower of the KY Derby), etc. Also, a TON of hot glue! You can go crazy at the Dollar Tree with decorations - be as creative as you want! On the Thursday before Derby, they parade around the school wearing their hats and showing off their floats! It is so cute!

2. I even found a few pictures of a bulletin board I did for KY Derby 135 (I think this was 2008). The kids colored and decorated a hat (coloring sheet I googled). Then I took their pictures and put the hats on them. We laughed at how some of the hats looked so big on them. I love the sombrero with the feather on the top and the chef's hat!  On the left bottom side of the board, I printed out some sample Derby tickets and put trivia questions on them. This was a point in my career that I was REALLY big into interactive bulletin boards. I like doing them now, but I was obsessed with them then.

(This was also my first homeroom class I had at the school where I teach now. I miss those kids!)

3. I have a fun website on my student wiki page that I have my students play the week of Derby. It's "What's my Derby horse name?" So cute, so fun - the kids love it because they put in their first initial and the day of the their birth (day #), and it gives out unique, fun Derby horse names. I think it's done by our local newspaper (The Courier Journal). The website now has an ad on it, but you can scroll below the ad and you'll see it. It's a small box on the page. You can get to that fun activity here.

4. And last, but certainly not least, here are 2 fun, new freebies I just put on TPT. The first one is a math game that my college math teacher showed us how to play. It was my "Teaching Elementary Math" class and the teacher was amazing. She gave us so many cool resources, and it's funny because I didn't even know that I would be living in Louisville, Kentucky when she showed us this game, but when I started teaching here, it just made sense!
It's called "Derby Race". I don't even think the worksheet she gave us back then had a title, but I gave it one anyway and basically vamped up the worksheet all pretty for you all! The gist: you are using probability and chance to see which horse will win out of 6 horses. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Click on any of the pictures to check out this FREEBIE! Or you can click here!


I have also added a "Kentucky Derby Fact & Opinion" cut and paste activity!

Click on pictures to check out this FREEBIE. Or you can click here!

Have a great weekend and here's to an awesome Derby celebration! PLUS, thank you SOOOO much to all of my new followers! I really appreciate every single one of you! :)