MARYSVILLE – Sunnyside Elementary School teacher Danette Hedge normally is good at solving puzzles.

But when it came to one at an assembly Oct. 27, she had no clue.

Hedge couldn’t solve the puzzle that told her she accomplished a longtime goal of being picked to play on the Wheel of Fortune TV show.

“I was trying to figure it out,” thinking it had something to do with Sunnyside, she said. She will be on the show sometime in February when it will be filmed in Seattle.

The school was able to pull off the trick by having a number of students up front with placards. Each one had a letter on it. Teachers in the audience would guess a letter. They also gave out student awards to throw her off.

Hedge tried out for WOF in Everett a few months ago. She advanced to the second round in Seattle recently. She’d been checking her mail daily to see if she would advance to the live show.

“I was shocked. I had no idea,” she said.

Hedge said she only told a few people about the tryouts.

“I didn’t think anybody knew,” she said. “I’m excited. I love it. I watch it every night.”