It’s a Numbers Game, but for a Good Cause

Six-year-old Olyvia Kim is a whiz at Magic Squares, a math game in which tiles numbered from 1 to 9 are arranged on a tick-tack-toe board so that the numbers add up to 15 in every direction.

“I was the first one in class to solve it,” said Olyvia, a first-grade student at Balboa Magnet School in Northridge.

Olyvia was one of 40 students from Sandy Toth’s first-grade class and Joanne Pope’s second-grade class who taught their parents, grandparents and siblings math games they had learned in class during the Family Math Build It Festival held this week in the school’s auditorium.

“The kids love it because they’re the ones in charge and they get to show their parents and tell them the rules,” said Toth, who organized the biannual event with Pope.

The event began four years ago as a means of having students and parents interact with mathematics, Toth said. What started as an annual festival eventually became a twice-a-year affair two years ago due to positive responses from students and parents, she said.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s well worth it when you see their response and how much they like it,” Toth said.

Thirteen math games were showcased at the festival.

The most popular activity took place on the auditorium stage, where the students taught their parents the do’s and don’ts of pyramid building using rolled up newspapers.

“You have to roll it tight and make sure that the dowels aren’t very big,” said first-grader Nathan Saritzky, 7.

As for the mystery of Magic Squares, Olyvia was a little hesitant to reveal her secret.

But after some persuasion from her parents, Olyvia finally relented.

“This is how I did it,” said Olyvia, as she placed a tile numbered “5” in the center square of the board.

She then quickly arranged the even numbered tiles in the corner squares and the odd numbered ones on the sides.

In less than 10 seconds, the puzzle, which had baffled many of the parents at the festival, was solved.