DALLAS — For the fifth-grade students at Lehman Jackson Elementary School, math can be all fun and games.
The school held its fourth annual academic fair, which sees students in each grade from kindergarten through sixth assigned an academic subject and theme around which to build projects. Fifth-grade students were assigned mathematics and created carnival games for other students to play.
Chase Smith, 10, worked with a group of peers on a game called ball pong.
“You know those games in carnivals where you have the wiffle ball and they have a ton of cups and you try to get it in the colored cup to win? That’s the game I was thinking of when I pictured this in my head,” Chase said.
When students played Chase’s game, they tossed three ping pong balls into red and black plastic cups — red cups were worth one point and black ones were worth 10 if it held a penny, 20 a nickel and 30 a quarter.
They kept statistics on each player and created a profile for their games that included graphs depicting mean and median scores. Chase explained what the information said about ball pong and the challenge of shooting into a black cup.
“It tells us that some kids have more luck because sometimes it doesn’t go generally where you aim it,” he said.
Fifth-grade teacher Kristin Gannon said projects are completed in school, not at home.
“That makes it easier for them to do group projects because, at this age, it’s difficult for them to get together with friends.”
Chase’s mother, Janette, said she prefers this process over the traditional at-home projects typical of school fairs.
“All the work is done in school, so everything that they put into it is what they get out of it,” Janette said. “It’s a great learning experience for them rather than having to do the work at home, where a lot of times parents tend to be completely involved and kids aren’t getting the full learning experience.”
Elsewhere in the school, second-graders displayed projects involving landforms and continents, third-graders did science with candy, fourth-graders showcased their self-authored children’s books and sixth-graders exhibited projects based on decades throughout history.
In the gym, kindergarten and first-grade students sold class-made goods to raise money for a new school playground.
“They made little things and they were hoping to help,” said first-grade teacher Linda Van Orden. “Everything for sale was made by them with recycled items.”
Van Orden said students worked on the items, which included decorated pens, flower pots and cup-and-ball games, while teachers donated pieces for a silent auction.
First-grade student Emma Salko, 7, helped make pet rocks painted as ladybugs and flower pots, but her favorite project was decorating pens.
“They were so fun to make,” she said.
Another first-grade student, Erin Roushey, 7, helped make ladybugs and flower pots.
“My favorite part was putting stickers on the flower pots,” Erin said. The pot she took home was decorated with an alien, a ladybug and other stickers made of felt.
Principal Donald James said the variety of attractions at Lehman-Jackson Elementary School during its academic fair has made the event a “great night for the community to come out.” James said the academic fair is second in attendance only to the school’s annual Halloween parade.
“Every year it just seems to get better and better,” James said. “The teachers come up with fantastic ideas and the students create tremendous work.”
