Fourth Grade
Worksheets
A Sport with an Unusual Name! Curling
Curling is a winter sport that uses stones on an icy playing surface. Curling is played between two teams, and each team has four curlers on it. The members of the teams can be men or women. A team with both is called a mixed team. The goal of curling is to push a stone on ice into a scoring area. The scoring area looks like a large target with a white dot in the center. This dot is called the button. The button is surrounded by red, white, and blue bands.
The players have special clothing and equipment. They wear special curling shoes. They use a curling stone for their sport. The stone looks like a flattened ball with a handle on top. It weighs 42 pounds and measures up to thirty-six inches in circumference. The curlers use the handle to push the stone over the ice and then release it. The stone then slides into the scoring area. Official curling stones are made from a type of Scottish granite. A new one can cost $1,000.00!
Curlers use a special curling broom to sweep the area of ice in front of the stone as it slides along. This helps the stone end up in the best possible place for a good score. Today, this sport requires skill and strategy, but when it started long ago, a good score was usually a matter of luck!
