(Feb. 3, 2001) In a classroom at Gladys Wood Elementary, kindergartners strapped on black blindfolds.

Dorothy Matsui's fifth- and sixth-graders sat at short, round tables next to kindergarten buddies. The older kids dished out vanilla ice cream, and the little ones poured on chocolate syrup, ate the gooey mix, threw their plastic bowls in the garbage, and washed up -- all with blindfolds on.

Are you picturing a mess?

Some couldn't find their bowls, others were slightly off-target for their mouths.

Matsui hopes the kindergartners and her own class of older children will take away a bigger lesson than how hard it is to navigate without sight. She's also teaching compassion for people who are blind, deaf or otherwise disabled. ''Maybe they'll be more empathetic,'' she said.

Alaska schools kicked off lessons, assemblies and other activities Friday related to the Special Olympics World Winter Games. The March 4-11 games will bring 2,750 athletes from 80 nations to Anchorage. Young people and adults with mental retardation compete on teams with non-disabled partners in seven sports, from figure skating to floor hockey.

Many teachers are planning a lesson or two related to the games, and schools are entertaining Olympics teams the week before the main events.

Matsui decided to take advantage of the Special Olympics to launch regular lessons about disabilities -- something she'd been meaning to do for her entire 21-year teaching career.

Her interest stemmed from her childhood. Growing up in Honolulu, she lived next door to a girl with mental retardation named Nancy. Nancy's mother couldn't find baby sitters, so when Matsui was about 8, she volunteered. Nancy was 1 or 2.

''I found I had a lot of fun with her,'' Matsui said. ''I felt good being with her.''

After that, Matsui played at being disabled to see how it felt, such as putting her dominant hand behind her back. In college, she joined a student council for exceptional children.

As a teacher, she's done occasional experiments with her students -- but nowhere near as much as this year.

On Friday during gym, Matsui's students covered one eye, put plugs in their ears, or tied their legs loosely together to restrict their ability to run. Then they played floor hockey, closely matching the way Special Olympians will play next month.

Forget ice skates, hockey sticks and pucks. Floor hockey is played in tennis shoes, with waist-high straight sticks like broomsticks. The puck is a ring about a half-foot in diameter. To score, players snag the ring with sticks and shoot it into the net.

Despite handicaps, the game was fast-paced Friday. A couple of kids didn't move around much, or never seemed to get close to the ring. They wore blindfolds with small holes in the middle, so they had no peripheral vision.

''I had to go like this to try to see the puck,'' said fifth-grader Brittany Blouch, tilting her head. ''It was hard.''

When you're blind, said classmate Brendon Munson, you're in total darkness. He wore a blindfold in an earlier class experiment. ''I couldn't see where I was going. I couldn't see where my friends were. It was fun, but I got a little confused.''

The experiments are important, Brendon said, because if non-disabled people don't know what being disabled is like, they might not treat disabled people well. ''You could have been treating people with disabilities like crazy people.''

''It's hard for most kids to take in somebody who's different,'' said Sally Marinucci, a sixth-grader. ''If you take time, some kids will make friends.''