Wheel whiz kids

Marisa O’Neil

Pat Sajak has nothing on Cecilia Ordaz’s first-grade class.

On the students’ first day back after a week-long vacation, the

Woodland Elementary School teacher added a familiar prop to their

math lesson. Using a small, spinning arrow -- the type that might

come with a board game -- Ordaz generated random numbers for the

class to add, giving them a “Wheel of Fortune” sense of suspense.

In fact they were having so much fun, they didn’t seem to realize

they were actually learning math by adding numbers in groups of 10s

and ones.

And 6-year-old Jonathan Boothe had the magic number when Ordaz

spun a three for the ones column and another three for the 10s

column.

“Thirty-three, 33, 33,” Jonathan answered triumphantly, jumping up

and down and waving his fists in the air.

Students laid out three sticks in the ones column on their papers

and three bundles of 10, each secured with rubber bands, in the 10s

column. Ordaz told the students to close their eyes and touch the

sticks to get a feel for their numbers.

“Now, we’re going to play ‘Race to 100,’” she announced.

A series of spins gave them four bundles of 10 sticks and five

single sticks. The next spin gave them another five, letting them

bank their 10 singles for a fifth bundle.

Amanda Brown, 7, came up for a spin.

“Eight,” 6-year-old Mario Arias exclaimed when the arrow stopped,

then carefully counted aloud as he plucked eight sticks from the bin

in front of him.

Once the class got up to 65, Ordaz told them to finish on their

own, using one die to come up with the numbers.

“If you get to 100, take [the sticks] off and start over again,”

she said.

The students dutifully took their dice and rolled them over and

over, jumping for joy with each high roll. Their papers gradually

filled with the bundled sticks.

“I got to 100,” Mario said, throwing his hands up with glee. “I

got 104!”

“Very good,” Ordaz told him. “Now start over.”

He cleared his paper and sorted the sticks back in their bins.

Then he took his die for another try.

“Start all over, start all over,” he sang to himself as he shook

it, ready and eager for more rolling, counting and adding.