Paper Mill School third grader Jonathan Bulan, 8, jumps and makes the correct response when Ben Bendor calls on him during an arithmetic game staged as part of an ‘Arithmetickles’ assembly presented by the school’s PTO Friday. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – The students at Paper Mill School were laughing so hard they didn’t seem to notice that they were learning – or at least reviewing – arithmetic lessons.
The children at the school were treated to a presentation of ‘Arithmetickles’, a stage show to make math fun presented by Ben Bendor of the Children’s Theatre Center in New Jersey.
Bendor said that he and his wife developed the program “to help kids see that math is not scary and it’s fun” and came up with a show for children that brings pupils onto the stage for games. He said that once the participants start playing “you forget that you’re doing math.”
A group of third graders who took the stage had to count to 50 but were not allowed to say the word “seven.”
Instead, the children had to say “boo” and jump when they got to a number including a seven, or a multiple of seven, and were eliminated when they spoke a prohibited number.
Later, teams of fifth graders played a game of tic-tac-toe but had to earn their Xs and Os by correctly answering simple word problems.
The contest came down to the answer to question “If a 75 year old man averages eight hours of sleep per night, how many years has he spent sleeping in his lifetime?”
The team which first got the question needed to answer correctly to win the game but found that ‘15’ is not correct.
When the other team got a chance to answer, they found that ‘25’ is the correct answer but, since they didn’t have three right answers in a row, the tic-tac-toe game had no winner.
But the smiling faces and laughter of the children jumping around in the cafeteria made it look like they were all winners with the program.
Bob Smith, the president of the school’s PTO, said that the PTO sponsored the program which was presented in two assemblies in slightly different forms for all the school’s children.
Brown said that the group has applied for a Westfield Cultural Council grant to offset the cost of the program.
He said that PTO works to present two assemblies each year, in the fall and spring, and also sponsors entertainment at the school’s field day in the spring.
