School Finds Creative Ways to Incentivize Math Participation

School Finds Creative Ways
To Incentivize Math Participation

LITITZ, PA—Reidenbaugh Elementary School student Peter Sanchez and his sisters Catherine and Madeline are triplets, and all three participated in the First in Math program in third grade. But, they don’t do everything together. Last winter, Peter spent part of every Monday morning from January through April with his peers, indulging his interest in the 24® Game.

Reidenbaugh Math Club 
Reidenbaugh third- and fourth-graders having fun on 24 Challenge Club day.

Reidenbaugh sponsors a 24 Challenge® Club for third and fourth graders that meets every Monday. The club is run by third-grade teacher Nicole Wingert. “One of our goals when we started was to give students practice for the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13’s 24 Challenge® math competition in May.”

Wingert likes working with 24 game cards, and says they are a wonderful teaching tool because students can look at math in a different way. “It gives different students a chance to shine.”

In addition to the 24 Challenge Club, Reidenbaugh also uses First In Math to supplement its mathematics curriculum. “It is part of the daily routine in many classes,” says Jason Hoffman, K-12 Math Supervisor for Manheim Township.

To help engage students and teachers, Hoffman visits schools and delivers a special ‘Golden Calculator’ award to top FIM teams. “Every Sunday night I send out an e-mail update to all of our teachers and principals,” says Hoffman.  “I actually use four old calculators that no longer work and I spray paint them gold and then adhere to a poster. One calculator goes to the building with the highest cumulative number of stickers per student, one to the classroom with the highest cumulative number of stickers per student, another to the student with the highest cumulative number of stickers and the final calculator is presented to a building/classroom/grade level/individual student who successfully completed a challenge that I posed to them the previous week.“

A few weeks ago, the challenge Hoffman issued to seven teams who were hovering between 900-999 stickers per student was to make it to the 1,000-sticker milestone.  “Our students have been doing an excellent job on FIM.  They love the friendly competition and have really been pushing each other.  It's been great to see kids motivated to do extra math!  It's funny how an old calculator painted gold is such a motivator!”


Have a story to share? Email your news to info@firstinmath.com. If submitting a photo, identify all persons in the photo in the body of your email. We will reply if we would like to use your picture, and you will need to provide a signed Release Form from each person. Select form(s) you need below. Email attention FIM NEWS & NOTES.
Student Release Form
Student Release Form (Spanish)
Adult Release Form