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Show Dilworth School Children Enjoy Workinq Out Arithmetic Problems After working it out to the final degree, the youngsters divided di-vided into shifts and painted the playground themselves: a job they wouldn't trust to anyone else. They invented a long-string method for finding first and third bases in actual application, and nailed two boards close together to-gether to help them paint the lines straight. 170 Kids Take Part & Some' 170 pupils were in on the project and loved every minute of it, the teacher reported. re-ported. When it was done, they started to get a real kick out of solving the relatively simple textbook problems. Mr. Boyd Pexton, enterprising enterpris-ing arithmetic teacher at the new Dilworth School, has out "Tom Sawyered" the fabled fence painter only he's got kids volunteering to do their homework home-work and loving it! And he learned sixth and seventh sev-enth grade pupils can handle math problems that would stagger stag-ger an adult if the right classroom class-room psychology is applied at the right time. Mark Off Playground The thing began recently when workmen finished installing in-stalling a hardtopped asphalt playground around much of the school. The pupils of Boyd Pexton Pex-ton wanted it marked off for Softball, volleyball, soccer and basketball. And Mr. Pexton wanted them to learn math while doing it. Instead of working on the usual textbook arithmetic, the pupils started calculations on playground sizes, and just what should go where. Before they realized it, things got more complicated, com-plicated, and they had to convert con-vert to scale measurements, fractions and the works. Blackboards Black-boards became drafting boards for the occasion. Use a Compass When the Softball problem got tough, Mr. Pexton introduced the compass and taught students stu-dents how it could be used to accurately locate first and third bases. |