November 2023 – “Who wants to be a bazillionaire?” was the question of the day asked by Kash, the host of the educational game show held in the O. Henry gymnasium. This game show teaches children about finances. Two teams went head to head in a battle of financial literacy. In a bunch of different, mini-games, the two teams competed to get the most “buzzucks” while learning about budgeting, saving, risk and reward, and inflation. Why did they do this, you may ask?  It’s important for kids to learn about money, so they know how to spend it wisely when they get older. Who came out on top, and who came out with a pie to the face? 

As the lights grew bright and the crowd cheered, the teams came out on stage cheering, like excited squirrels. On the yellow team, there were three sixth graders -Hu-Die, Vince, and Emery. On the blue team, there were three seventh graders – Weston, Felix, and Gage. 

The first challenge was to save it or spend it. If they saved it, they contributed to their score in the end, but if they spent it, they got an advantage in the next game. As the two teams competed against each other, the score was 8 to 2 in the yellow team’s favor. “The yellow team was wiser with their buzzucks, so that’s why they had more,” explained Livia A.

The last game before the bonus round was called “Bringing Home the Bacon” with two new guests:  Ms. Mann and Mr. Jurkovic. These two teachers, dressed in pig costumes, tried to catch the foam money thrown at them. If they caught it, then they put it in the bank bag, and whoever had more wins in the end would win. It was very close, but the yellow team came out on top by two. Next on the agenda, they needed to see who had more buzzucks, so they could decide who goes to the bonus round. The privilege of going to the bonus round went to the 6th graders on the yellow team.

In the bonus round, the team captain of the yellow team, Vince, dropped a buzzuck into the board to see what it landed on. The options were: pizza party for your ACES class, nothing, lose all your buzzzucks, or pie Ms. Boltz. He had three tries and he landed on… the pizza party. Everyone was so disappointed that they didn’t get to see Ms. Boltz get pied, so they started  chanting, “Pie Ms. Boltz! Pie Ms. Boltz!”  In the end, the crowd got what they wanted and delighted in watching Ms. Boltz get pied as the closing act for the show.