Panther Valley Elementary School first-grade classrooms placed first, second and third in a nationwide online competition designed to help them practice math skills.

Six Panther Valley elementary classrooms joined the Masters League “Spring Speedsters” competition on 99math.com, reinforcing skills taught in class and learning new skills, their teachers said.

Those six classrooms, representing their school overall, placed first in the state and fourth in the nation.

More than 13,000 classrooms entered the competition and PV’s first grades were competing against 690 other first-grade classrooms nationwide, said teacher Tianna Pucklavage, whose class placed first.

The online platform isn’t part of the school’s curriculum, but a tool to enhance what is being taught and give them an advantage as they move toward more advanced skills in years to come, she said.

“They’re learning skills they haven’t learned in first grade,” she said. “It gives them a head start for second grade.’

First grade math focused on single-digit addition and subtraction up to 10, and in second grade, they move on to two-digit addition and subtraction, Pucklavage said.

“So using this website is helping them get exposed to those things,” she said.

Pucklavage learned about the platform from fellow first-grade teacher Maria Wozniak, whose class placed second in the nation in the competition, which ran from April 7-25.

“They worked very hard,” Wozniak said.

Theresa Baddick’s first-grade class was the third-place winner nationwide, they said.

While excited about their individual classroom wins, Wozniak said they were more excited for the school placing top in the state and fourth in nation.

That’s because the number of classrooms competing was only six, which included five first grades and one second grade, she said.

“We were thrilled that we took first place, because there’s only six classes in our school doing it, and some of these schools have 11 and 13 classes doing it, or 24 classes doing it,” Wozniak said.

“More kids equal more time,” she said, explaining that schools with more classes and students engaged can rack up more time in the competition.

Active time practicing math problems is how they earned points to increase their scores for the competition, according to Wozniak.

Students earn points for school practice during school hours, and even more points for time spent practicing math at home, Pucklavage said.

“They worked really hard and they were really motivated,” she said, noting that her class answered more than 30,000 math questions and spent more than 11 hours as a class at home practicing through the competition.

Pucklavage likes the practice and repetition the platform gives students, because they’ve answered problems so many times that they just know the answer now, she said.

They also are learning those advanced skills not traditionally taught in first grade, she said, adding that some of the advanced students have moved onto multiplication and division.

Pucklavage can also work on specific skills, such as adding 8s, as a group in class using the platform, and track how well her students are doing, and where and who may need extra help, she said.

She even borrowed an idea from another teacher who was watching her class’ accuracy in a skill on the platform, and quizzing them in class when they achieved a certain benchmark.

Now, it’s not all work and no play, the teachers said.

There is a game element as a reward for all the students they spend practicing math problems, Pucklavage said, and they earn stars that can be used to buy things to build their worlds in the game.

Her students also work hard to build their worlds in the game.

“It’s like ‘Who has what pet?’ and then somebody else unlocks something or a feature, and then all of a sudden, everybody wants it,” Pucklavage said. “So, I think the game mode really helps them because they want to build their world.”

But for most of April, students really focused on the competition and how they were doing against other classrooms nationwide, hoping to stay on top of the leader board, both Pucklavage and Wozniak said.

Younger students don’t always understand the concept of nation, country or state and what that means or how big that is, Pucklavage said. But her students spent weeks on a reading unit on the United States, she said.

“They really do understand when I say we are first in our nation, first in our country,” Pucklavage said. “They understand that they live in Pennsylvania, and that’s part of our country.”

That helped build excitement in her classroom as the competition moved along, and they were leading the nation, she said.

“Last year, I don’t think the kids quite understood how large that is,” Pucklavage said. “This year, they really do understand. When I say, ‘You are first in the nation,’ they understand how large that is.”

Her students were even asking about the leader board while on a field trip last week, hoping they didn’t lose a position on the leader board and gearing up to work hard as the competition closed the following day, she said.

The competition closed last Friday, and the students were able to focus on the game aspect of the platform, a teacher-approved and well-deserved reward for their hard work, the teachers said.

However, they learned one student kept working on those skills — logging 14 hours of actual math problems, not game play, over the weekend after the competition closed.

She was still doing math problems Monday, too.

And continuing to building on skills that will help her in second and third grades, and beyond, her teachers said.

“I’m so impressed with these teachers and students,” said Dr. Paula Jones, elementary school principal. “They truly took the initiative to not only incorporate the program to support learning, but they totally stepped up and conquered the challenge.

“Another reason to be PV proud.”