DANVILLE, Ill., (WCIA) — Do you think you’re smarter than a first grader? We could put that knowledge to the test…but maybe we should leave it to students in Vermilion County.

On Wednesday, first graders from all six Danville elementary schools participated in their 10th annual math challenge. The first one since the pandemic.

It’s not every day you’re welcomed into school with a drumline and later working with older high school students.

But, for Danville first graders, that’s exactly what their morning looked like.

“We’re so excited to bring back our first-grade math challenge here,” Angela Wilson, the district’s math facilitator, said. “Each school has brought at least one team, if not up to five teams of first graders, and they are here to show their math knowledge.”

Teachers said working together as a team and using interactive blocks to solve math problems will help build core skills to lead them into the future.

“We get to these upper-level math classes sometimes it’s hard to get even a class of 20 kids together,” Rachel Seibert, the DHS math department head, said. “We really want to promote the love of math and hopefully, these 45 kids behind me will then in 11 years be in my AP Calculus class.”

She helped prep 22 of her students to help out.

“I’m really excited that kids still like to do math, learn and still get excited to play and come socialize,” Cecilia Brown, one of the AP student helpers, said.

Some of the questions left kids puzzled, while others felt like a walk in the park.

After working on 10 different word problems throughout the morning, the kids got awards and medals for their hard work.