The Kentucky Derby and Horse Racing Provide Literature and Math Connections

While you might not be interested in heading down to the race track for a day of horse racing, you still may have an interest in the sport that you would like to share with your students. With the Kentucky Derby being run this weekend, this might provide a time to combine real life experiences with curriculum. By using horses, and the famous race, as a starting point you can have students learn about literature, math, and history.

For me, an obsession with horses began when I was young. It led to an interest in horse-related literature when I was older. “Seabiscuit: An American Legend” by Laura Hillenbrand was one of the best books I have read. It was a great story about a group of individuals who overcame adversity and became famous. It also provided an inside look at the reality of the Great Depression for both every day, and affluent, Americans. The story behind how Hillenbrand came up with the story is a great way to introduce students to the idea of research, perseverance, and finishing what you start. You might want to show part of the movie based on the book as well.

While your students might not be ready to read Hillenbrand’s book, there are a variety of books at different levels that may appeal to your students. Since the movie “Secretariat” was recently released, you could read students stories about Big Red, and have them watch part of the Disney movie. Both the horse and his owner provide great examples of what can happen when you don’t give up and you love what you are doing. Secretariat had a habit of waiting until the last moment to pass all the other horses and win the race. While this was nerve wracking for his owner and trainer, it was exciting. Another famous book about horse racing you might want to use is “National Velvet’ by Enid Bagnold.

Students could use the books or movie representations of these horses and their owners to write about overcoming adversity. They could use examples from their own lives or delve into an analysis of the horses and their owners. Either way, you can help students start to think about the ways that people can beat the odds and do great things.

In addition to exposing students to literature, a discussion of horse racing can lead to a math exploration. There are many ways you could do this. One way would be to compare and graph the times of different horses who have won the Kentucky Derby. Students could determine who was the fastest and by how much. Students could also design their own ways to analyze information about the race. For example, students could take the top ten fastest horses and compare their ages to see which horses performed the best.

And last, but not least, students could delve into the history of horse racing. They could learn about its importance in the United States, and how over the years it has united the country in a common interest. At times of adversity, sports like horse racing and baseball, have stepped in to enrich everyone’s lives.

There are many ways you can use books and literature to teach your students about this interesting sport. What follows are some suggestions for melding curriculum with an interesting and motivating topic.

The Kentucky Derby and Horse Racing Lessons:

Run for the Roses

This lesson provides a great resource for information about the Kentucky Derby. You can have students do research on famous horses, the history of the event, and many other topics.

The Sport of Kings: Horse Racing in America

In this lesson students learn about the history of horse racing. They learn about the terminology and other important information.

The Horse Race

Students learn about probability and odds using the example of a horse race. Promethean boards are used for this lesson, but pencil and paper would work as well.

Run for the Cup

In this lesson students make a model race track. While it does not call for the use of measurement and other mathematical skills, these things can be incorporated. Students could make the race track to scale and show the distances run by each horse in a real or imaginary race.