A jump on math

Frog-leap competition gives legs to kids’ lessons

It was part math and part science but all fun as Pleasant Hill Elementary’s third-graders gathered in their school’s rotunda for a frog-jumping championship Friday.

Six frogs representing the six third-grade classes were chosen for Friday’s race after winning heats on Thursday in which about 100 frogs competed.

Todd Willis, third- grade math science and social studies teacher, said the event was used to teach students about bar graphs, rounding numbers and place value, standards for third-grade math under the new Common Core curriculum. Willis said the races also taught the children about the environment.

There were parents that spent three or four hours with their kids in the evening catching frogs and trying to find one that would be a winner.”

Todd Willis, third-grade math science and social studies teacher

at Pleasant Hill Elementary

“In my classroom it’s really important to teach kids about nature. In books they see pictures of frogs or birds from Africa while not appreciating what we have here. Imagine if someone from Africa saw a cardinal for the first time,” he said.

Willis decided to hold the races after he asked a few students to catch frogs for a classroom tank. So many students got excited about the proposition that Willis decided to make a grade-wide activity of it, stressing math.

The frogs lined up not in first, second and third lanes but lanes labeled ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands. Bar graphs were made and finishes were compared to pare down the mass of frogs to the finalists.

“There were parents that spent three or four hours with their kids in the evening catching frogs and trying to find one that would be a winner. It was great family time. I had one parent tell me that their child had never been so excited to go to school,” Willis said.

The finalists were Marlee Grimmett with Dusty, Kyra Mitchell with Sadie, Cayleb Newell with Rocket, Jarrett Morris with Spike, Riley Rayburn with Jumping Jack and Cooper Dye with Speeding Green.

Cayleb said his older brother helped him catch Rocket, but it took a while. Students had a week to catch the frogs.

PHOTOS BY STAN CARROLL/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL A puff of air from Pleasant Hill third- grader Cooper Dye is encouragement to his frog Speeding Green to hop to the finish line during Friday’s race. Tucked into the competition were lessons in bar graphs, rounding numbers and place value — all...

In the just-for-fun teachers’ race, principal Jamie Loper tries to coax her frog to finish the race, after it stopped moving 3 inches from the finish line and stubbornly refused to budge.