With no snow, no mountains and a lack of essential sporting equipment, students and teachers at Oak Manor Sixth Grade Center were forced to use their imagination when staging a mock Winter Olympics Thursday.

A line of tape snaking down a hallway served as an alpine skiing course, while the gymnasium was transformed into a stadium for non-traditional Winter Olympics sports, such as the beanbag toss and free-throw competition.

It was enough to engage the students’ attention for the day.

“It’s fun,” said Alexandria Dunnuck fresh off of tossing beanbags.

The winter Olympics exercise had an educational aspect, too, as students were assigned countries and winter sports to research.

Taylor Bailey was surprised by the symbols Russia uses in its language.

“I don’t know how to say them but they have these different symbols,” she said.

Connor Tibbitts studied up on the land down under.

“I didn’t really know that Australia is the only continent that is a country,” he said.

Oak Manor teacher Cherie Schaller thought it was an effective way to use the ongoing Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, to promote learning.

“For two weeks now we’ve been making the students aware of the Olympics, giving them various trivia questions,” she said. “They found out about past Olympic history, where the country is located and what the weather is like there. If it’s snowy there, would that help them in the Winter Olympics? The Jamaican team threw them for a loop.”

Students kept track of the medals won by each country and hung corresponding flags on classroom walls. They could also add points for their country by scoring well on specific tests.

Awards were presented in the afternoon.