Olympics Mathematics - Ordinal Number Races for Foundation

Story: The adults have all come down with serious colds, so the Olympics is out of competitors. But wait - your class has some super fast runners. Do you think you could replace the adults and try to compete at the Olympics for Australia? The first event is the 100m sprint!

Initial whole-class modelling and practice (prior to the outside races): The Olympics has a new rule. Since there are no adults, you need to work out your place and report it accurately using the correct ordinal number language of first/second/third, and so on. Let's practice with these car races first: https://toytheater.com/order/

Main event

Students race in groups of 5. After being told their place as a regular number by the teacher ("One, two, three, four, five"), students line up in order and orally say the ordinal number that relates to their place. For example, the teacher says, "One," and the student then says, "First." So the line up of students, once well practised, says, "First, second, third, fourth, fifth!"

Support: Start with only 3 racers per group, so the language becomes only, "First, second, third." As the class improves/extension: Increase the size of the groups racing, so that the language can progress up to "10/tenth," or even into the teens for ordinal numbers.

Extra engaging option: Use pillow cases or similar to turn the sprint into a sack race, or three-legged races.