Cardinal Olympics

The DT Elementary has Cardinal Olympics

By: Emily Shimmin

The DT elementary physical education teacher, Mr. Jerry Caraway, has started a fun new program to motivate his upper elementary students (3-6). The Cardinal Olympics is a series of games/competitions that mimic the actual Olympics. 

Caraway said, “I thought it would be a good idea to get the kids involved in something different. The PE program has never done something like this before and I wanted to try something new/fun. They seem to really enjoy doing these new PE games.”

Caraway, who has been teaching and coaching at DT for 3 years, got the idea for the Olympics from a close friend. 

In the games, there are 7 different events. The different events include javelin throw, water polo, volleyball, mile run, swimming, and kayak race. The traditional Olympic-style events have been changed to be better suited for elementary students. In the javelin throw, they would use pool noodles instead of a javelin stick. For water polo, the kids would get on the scooters and slide around the gym. When they played volleyball, they used a beach volleyball. Instead of swimming they would lay on their stomachs on the scooters and would move their arms like they're swimming. In the kayak race, they used plungers as oars or paddles on scooters and had teams of five or six kids and went down and back. However, in the mile, they actually ran a mile. 

6th grader Chaney Richter said,” I really enjoyed participating in these fun new competitive activities during PE. My favorite game that we did was the javelin throw because I could throw the pool noodle really far.”  

There are different teams involved in the Olympics. Caraway separated the teams, trying to make them as even as possible. Each class was divided into 3 teams. He scores the teams by timing their different events. The different winners from each event get medals. Caraway then went to each classroom and posted the winners. There wasn’t necessarily an overall winner because the point of the games was to have fun and compete. 

Caraway hopes to continue doing the Cardinal Olympics with the DT Elementary. He also hopes to continue adding these fun new games for the kids to do.