GET SET, ... NOW SOLVE! DANUBE ELEMENTARY STUDENTS PERFORM IN MATH OLYMPICS.

Byline: Mark Kellam Valley News Writer

Tying in with the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Danube Elementary held its own version of the classic games with a few additions - as well as subtractions, estimations and multiplication problems.

The Granada Hills school held a Math Olympics on Feb. 24.

The goal of the event was to teach students that math can be fun.

Each class represented a different country, including Mexico, Italy, Ireland and Israel. During an opening ceremony, the students walked onto the playground wearing hats and waving flags symbolizing their countries. It was all done with the Olympic anthem playing over a sound system.

``The kids really enjoyed that,'' said Principal Sharon Geier.

The activities focused on math skills the state expects students to learn at grade levels from kindergarten to fifth grade, Geier said.

Kindergartners did a bean-bag toss. They threw the bags into circles that had numbers inside them. When the student threw a bean bag into a ring, he or she had to say the number located there. The game helped students recognize numbers, a state requirement for that grade level.

First-graders were divided into two teams and did a math relay. Their activity checked their ability to determine ``greater than'' and ``less than.'' They were given two numbers and had to make up a sentence about their relation to each other. For example, ``Nine is greater than two.''

Second-graders had to guess how many noodles were in a jar and how long it would take to play a round of ``hot potato.'' The activities let them demonstrate their estimating skills.

Some activities were linked to the countries participating students represented. One second-grade class represented Italy, so an activity involving pasta was chosen. The ``hot potato'' game was selected because one of the second-grade classes represented Ireland.

Third-graders ran an obstacle course that had students running, jumping rope and walking while balancing an eraser on their head. At various points along the course, they had to answer multiplication problems.

Fourth-graders ran relays. Along the way, they answered division problems.

Fifth-graders also ran a relay and solved problems involving fractions.

The events culminated with a closing ceremony at which awards were given to first-, second- and third-place winners in each classroom. The fourth-graders did their awards a bit differently. Each of the school's three four-grade classes vied for medal contention as teams.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Isai Gil of Sylmar jumps rope before he sits down to solve a multiplication problem. He's taking part in an obstacle course during the Math Olympics at Danube Elementary. Tatiana Webb of Pacoima is a few seconds ahead of Gil, already wrapping her brain around the problem. Both are third-graders.

(2) Carlos Garcia, a teacher at Danube Elementary, takes a picture of three second-grade medalists from Cynthia Ramirez's class. Destyne Carr (middle) won the gold medal, Andrue Jimenez took silver and Karen Sanchez brought home the bronze. Their grade level focused on estimating. The activities included guessing how many noodles were in a jar.