SABATTUS – By the time 11-year-old host Zack Fisher felt himself “discombobulating” – forgetting the so-called million dollar question Wednesday night in front of his school’s packed gymnasium – he’d already proved he was a pretty smart sixth-grader.

Zack ad-libbed when his 13-page script accidentally reshuffled. And he forged ahead. The live game show, a version of TV’s “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” went on.

“I’m just glad I got through it,” Zack said.

A moment later, his pride kicked in. He threw his shoulders back, put on the wire-rimmed glasses he’d worn to look older and hiked up the sleeves of a too-big blazer.

“It went so smoothly,” teacher Allyson Ferguson said, beaming when Zack had finished.

All she’d hoped for from the night, a bit of learning and engaged parents and kids, was accomplished, she said. And aside from an afternoon rehearsal for the fourth and fifth grades, the kids had never done it before.

Sabattus Central School tries such productions every year, hoping to draw parents into the school around an event that highlights the kids’ efforts.

More than 300 parents, grandparents and kids showed up, filling the bleachers a full 15 minutes before the game began.

All 46 members of his sixth- grade class took part in the production: from the 16 who sat at desks on the gym floor waiting to be paired with adult contestants, to the six surfers who snatched the adults from the bleacher seats, to the security detail of eight. Wearing white shirts, black ties and sunglasses, they resembled either U.S. Secret Service agents or characters from the movie, “Men in Black.”

Trivia questions about geography, art, math, Spanish and English were broken up by presentations on the ill effects of tobacco, one of the school year’s themes.

Athena Ritcheson spent about two months with her classmates putting together one of the anti-smoking presentations. Then, she scored well enough on a 10-question test to be selected for a seat as a possible contestant.

It was her mother, Michelle, who faced the title challenge.

Was she smarter than a sixth-grader? Tough to say.

She answered her question right, naming the homophones of the words “clothes” and “mussel.” (Answer: close and muscle.)

But she had help.

“Athena told me there might be something about homonyms,” the mom said. “I studied a bit.”