My Grandson 
is going to be in a Derby Race 
…you note…I didn’t say THE Derby Race …but, a race…He is in kindergarten
…and they are having a mini race celebrating one our city’s favorite times of year…”The Kentucky Derby” 
…He needed a horse 
and a jockey cap
…With more time we probably could have done better…but, on short notice…my daughter-in-law, Carson and I created a Derby Horse and Cap to remember…It started with a shower curtain rod 
, a photo of a horse’s head off the computer
, green curly ribbon
, a $2.00 black cap 
, a hole puncher 
and stapler
…Now if you had these items as your materials even YOU could make a horse…oh, yeh!…and lots of imagination!…now, the teacher said a theme for your horse would be nice…Good Idea!…Carson came up with his theme right away…anything to do with “Army” 
…His choice and this was HIS project…So after cutting out our horses head …we punched holes along the mane 
and ran “Army” Green ribbon through to make a mane…The tail 
was long curly green ribbon also…we attached the head to the end of the pole with staples and tied on the flowing tail…it was beginning to look like a horse…He climbed on and pretended to ride
…Kennedy’s comment was,”It looks like a girl horse!”…with the curly ribbon flowing for the tail and mane…Expecting Carson to be upset…he just said, There are both kinds of horses running in the Derby …boys and girls!” His Mom reassured him a Filly 
which was what a female horse is called…could run just as fast…He was fine with that!…The hat project was unique…How to coordinate the army theme here?…So after running camouflage look paper 
off the computer…we made goggles 
for his hat with that…Carson chose pictures depicting Army themes 
to attach to his hat…even a picture of himself dressed in his Army outfit from Halloween 
…He finished his project off with choosing a name for his wonderful “Race” horse…”Sergeant”…appropriate I thought…a strong name for a racing horse
…He assured me he was going to be the winner 
of the contest…and as his Grandma…I assured him I thought He should be…at least for creativity! 
“My Kids!”…
I do believe the teachers 
at school loved Derby time better than the students…well, it was toss up!…There were numerous activities going on …”Run for the Kool-Aid” 
…”A parade of floats” made of shoe boxes 
, “Stick Horse” 
races, “Derby hat” creations
, Coloring contest to design “Silks for the Jockeys” 
and “Balloon” races to represent the Hot Air Balloons 
that were released at the Fairgrounds… …The Bake Shop was busy with cupcake orders 
and once we even made “Hoseshoe Cakes” 
with red roses 
to sell…quite pretty!…Our students made Derby Hats at the historical Louisville Water Tower 
art classes…They were awesome!…What I love about our city is that we have so many great traditions…These we tried to pass down to our students in a fun way…Our history lessons about Louisville 
and visits to the Kentucky Derby Museum
, our math lessons on distance that a race horse runs
and language arts classes with spelling words like…JOCKEY< DERBY< KENTUCKY< FLOATS< BALLOON < PARADE> ROSES>SILKS>HORSES>…and short story writing about what the students had learned about their city… became unique with our imaginations flowing…I believe maybe a “Most Creative Award” 
should have been given to us!
