As a new teacher at Topeka Collegiate School 13 years ago, Kelley Berryman wanted to make sure Africa was represented in the annual "Parade of Nations" and Math Olympics, so she picked the country of Kenya.

This year the country became more unique to Berryman's class of kindergartners because one of the students has ties to Kenya.

Six-year-old Kathryn Githinji was born in the United States, but her mother, Winnie Kimata, who volunteered at Thursday's Olympics, is a native Kenyan. Kathryn's grandparents still live in Kenya.

"Kenya is really fun because I get to spend time with my family," said Kathryn, who visited the country when she was 2 years old.

The school has been hosting Math Olympics for nearly 20 years, said Jewelia Oswald, who is a fourth-grade teacher and organizer of the Olympics. Each class, preschool through fifth grade, represents a country. The Olympics kick off with a march along the school's hallway to the Olympic anthem as students show their country's pride by shouting words in "their native language" and wave homemade flags.

After the march, each class moves to another class to visit another country and participate in a math activity. After completing the activity, the students receive stamps on their "passports."

"It's in the spirit of Olympics, learning about different countries and it's a fun way for math," Berryman said.

Kindergarten through second grade visited Kenya, Australia, Brazil, Hungary, Japan, Syria, Great Britain and Sweden, participating in a math activity at each station.

Third through fifth grade visited Italy, Chile, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jamaica, Canada and the United States.

Fourth-grader Stormy Robertson, 10, was in the class representing Canada. She and her classmates were playing a game called Skunk, which involved probabilities and risk-taking.

"I just like doing the different countries each year and dressing up like it and going around to the stations," Stormy said. "Pretty much everything."

Students in the third- through fifth-grade block also were learning to use an interactive white board that was installed in Oswald's class Wednesday. She said the game Skunk is usually a high-intensity game about the risk involved, but the students were more excited Thursday about getting to use the white board, which she said was fine as long as they were excited.

"They're enjoying learning how to use that white board," Oswald said.

Other activities included origami, safari math, and a combination game of math and physical education.

Second-grade teacher Dene Mosier, whose country was Japan, said the purpose of the yearly event is "to create excitement for learning" and "to expose them to other cultures."