Video: Eupora Students Compete in Their Own Winter Olympics

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EUPORA, Miss. (WCBI) — The snow and ice may be gone, but the Winter Olympics has still made it to North Mississippi.

Eupora sixth graders are having their own unique athletic competition to learn more about different countries and sports.

“It kind’ve really got them interested in watching things they wouldn’t normally watch, or getting involved in something they wouldn’t normally be involved with, and so they got to share new experiences,” said sixth grade social studies teacher Randee Jernigan.

“It’s fun and we got to go on the computers and go into the computer lab and got to look up and find interesting facts about it,” said sixth grader Saquoya Robinson.

Jernigan says this lesson taught the kids not just about different cultures, but team building skills as well.

For the competition, students used household items to play games like the free style penny drop, and the half pipe marble run.

“They had to work together, and they were working with students they probably wouldn’t normally hang out with or talk to,” Jernigan said.

Since Mississippi doesn’t have snow for bobsledding, the kids say they hope to one day try out these odd sports for themselves.

“Any winter sport that I could get a chance to try, I’d probably take it,” said sixth grader Dalton Smith.

For now, they’ll just stick to snow shoe skiing in the gym.

Jernigan says they plan to keep incorporating these hands-on activities to help students learn throughout the year.