Kids corner: Artondale students take on challenges at Math Olympiad

Elementary-age kids solve problems, enjoy Mrs. Dye

Hugh McMillan

special to the Gateway

Weeks ago, I lucked out. The rain stopped, and I got into Tacoma’s Truman Middle School without a soggy camera for the Washington State Math competition, “Math Olympiad,” attended by gazillions of South Sound elementary schools.

Artondale Elementary teacher Laurie Dye brought 34 members of her fourth- and fifth-grade students to compete in teams of three or four.

“We had two teams receive the highest rating, a medal, for the long problem, and one team a ribbon, the next highest ranking,” Dye said. “We also had four teams receive ribbons for work on shorter problems. I was very proud of all the students who have been practicing every week since January for this competition and willingly gave up a Saturday (to compete).”

Kailey Ann Dubinsky said there’s never boredome in Mrs. Dye’s class.

“She doesn’t give out homework, but big assignments instead,” Dubinsky said. “Who would want tons of small pages of homework when you could do big assignments instead? Big homework gives you time to do other things.”

Kait Dawson said in an e-mail that she was excited to be chosen for the math team.

“I like the practices; it’s fun to solve math problems with a team of four kids,” Dawson wrote.

Artondale had nine teams. Dawson said they started with one long problem that involved geometry and had an hour to do it.

“We had to use math skills to figure out how big a lawn was, and how long it would take to mow it,” she said. “It was an irregular-shaped lawn we divided into triangles and rectangles to figure the area out.

“We did 20 short problems and had 20 minutes for each four problems.”

Gabrielle Swinehart said Dye is the “weirdest teacher I have ever known, but she is my favorite.

“Every day I wake up, even when I am sick, I want to go to school to see what will happen next,” Swinehart wrote. “I didn’t win a medal or ribbon, and most of my friends did, which made me feel bad, but my friend who didn’t win comforted me.

“I got my participation ribbon, which made me feel very important.”

Parent Shala Morris appreciates Dye’s effort.

“She prepared the children for the Olympiad,” Morris said. “She is a very efficient, well-organized teacher who continuously keeps her class of highly capable children challenged and motivated.”

Morris said Dye visited her home to get her family’s input.

“Our son says (Dye) has a great sense of humor, and he really enjoys her interesting homework projects,” Morris said.

The fourth-grade team consisted of Kailey Dubinsky, Lindsey Moon, Carly Glassy, Ryan Gregory, Chris Jendrey, Emily Villa, Patrick Fletcher and Drew Gallinger.

The fifth-grade team included Ben Aguilar, Mason Pratz, Justin Morris, Bekah Ashpole, Lauren Harrison, Laura Kassner, Bethany Johnson, Gaby Swinehart, Hannah Sievert, Danielle Kuchler, Nick Kittmer, Sravan Konda, Cameron Dunn, Ben Martin, Mitch Hice, Sydney Freutel, Austin Killgore (Sykes), Brittney Lautenslager, Tayler Bradley, Jake Chase, Crystal Caseley, John Matthews, Michael Hammer, Kate Dawson, Orion Magill and Jake Walker.

Laura Kassner wrote: “Mrs. Dye makes everything fun. We recycle our own paper by making cool little notepads. We learn about saving electricity and riding your bike or walking instead of going in a car. Mrs. Dye makes me feel super prepared for middle school.”

Nicole Schmidt didn’t go to Math Olympiad, although she heard it was “awesome.”

“Mrs. Dye does a lot of projects! Most of them are really wacky,” Schmidt said. “One time we made kites out of tetrahedrons, then we actually flew them! Another time we made a giant cube out of big blow-up tube things!

“We built roller coasters,” Schmidt added. “Studying marine science, we made our own species of invertebrates! I’ve been with Mrs. Dye for two years and I’m really going to miss her.”

Carly Glassy also e-mailed and called Dye an “awesome teacher.”

“I’ve never been bored in this class,” Glassy wrote. “We do lots of math. Our class does reading, writing, oral reading, spelling and much more. We do things in groups. Unless we are taking a test, we are allowed to ask each other for help.”

“Mrs. Dye is an active and fun teacher,” Anna Knutson wrote. “She gives us project after project, and test after test. It may seem like kids would hate this, but Mrs. Dye makes it fun! We build teamwork.”

Another student, Carter West, said: “Mrs. Dye rocks!”

Lauren Harrison said The Olympiad was a challenging, fun experience.

“I found working together and talking things out with my team members is a good strategy to use while figuring out the problems,” she wrote. “I learned that not trying to rush, and writing down all of your work so you keep track of where you are, really helps.”

Lindsey Moon wrote: “It was exciting to compete against older kids than I am.”

Emily Villa penned: “I thought practice for the Math Olympiad was harder than the actual thing.”

Tayler Bradley “joined the Olympiad because I’m pretty good at math and thought it would be fun.”

Danielle Kuchler added: “You may think being in a harder class would be no fun at all, but we do a lot of fun things. I am super glad I got to spend my last year in elementary school in Mrs. Dye’s class!”

Obama? McCain?

Mrs. Dye gets my vote!

Hugh McMillan is a longtime freelance writer for The Peninsula Gateway. He can be reached at 253-884-3319.