News Photo by Barbara Woodham Alison Woods’ fifth and sixth-grade class recently took first place in Michigan in Sumdog’s USA National Sumdog Math Contest. Pictured left to right are front: Elijah Kaminski, Landon Roznowski, Oliver Misiak, Conner Heald, Blaise Peters, Lily Barth and Courtney Allen; back: teacher Alison Woods, Sharon Allen, Alex Laseck, Kolby Ross, Brynn Beatty, Joshua LaCross and Rita-Marie Peters. Missing are Kisela Mecsics and David Rawlings.

ALPENA — A class of 15 fifth and sixth-graders at All Saints Catholic School in Alpena led the way during a recent national competition.

The class took first place in Michigan out of 95 qualifying classes and were in the top 5% in the nation, placing 83rd out of 1,643 qualifying classes in Sumdog’s USA National Sumdog Math Contest.

“I was very surprised. We were rooting for the top 500 and we passed that on the first day,” student Landon Roznowski said.

Teacher Alison Woods said Sumdog is an interactive math video program, which was used for the competition during the week of Nov. 5-11. The Sumdog program enables students to learn essential math skills through a variety of games.

The more they play and answer correctly, the harder the questions get, she said.

“It’s great any time you can encourage kids to enjoy math,” Woods said. “It was a group effort, but each student had to get 1,000 questions correct just to qualify for the competition.”

Some students who participated were surprised to learn their class had won.

“I was actually kind of astonished,” Blaise Peters said.

The students earned coins from their win to purchase items within the game. They also earned a pizza party and the right to wear pajamas to school on Friday, Woods said.

“I liked it, you’re having fun and learning at the same time,” Courtney Allen said.

A recent study showed that using Sumdog for just 30 minutes a week almost doubled children’s proficiency and students in Woods’ class were happy to take part in the competition.

“I wanna give a lot of credit to our teacher for signing us up for the competition and giving us time to compete,” Rita-Marie Peters said.

All Saints Principal George Pena praised Woods and her students’ efforts and their hard work.

“Mrs. Woods is a very creative teacher and is always doing something exciting with her kids,” Pena said.