Students at Clanton Elementary School took a break from the classroom March 7 to compete with students from all over the world in World Maths Day.

This worldwide math competition is considered Day 2 of the World Education Games and connects more than 5 million students from more than 200 different countries through an online program.

Each first and second grade class at CES spent 40 minutes Wednesday playing 1-minute math games with students in England, Scotland, Canada, Pakistan, the Cayman Islands and elsewhere.

“The children really like it,” said Krisi Parrish, CES technology teacher. “It’s been good to get them motivated to do math.”

Parrish said the school discovered World Maths Day after implementing a similar program called Voyager Math, or VmathLive, this year.

“They are two different things, but they kind of intertwine,” Parrish said, noting that Vmath helped her students prepare for World Maths Day.

“It gets them excited about math,” she said. “Children have different strengths. We needed some math incentives.”

Chilton County High School allowed CES students to use its computer labs so that everyone would have time to participate.

“They can play at home as well,” Parrish said. “It’s a 24-hour period. Each student has 50 challenges.”

World Education Games are free and divided into four age categories. Students aged 4-18 are eligible to participate.