LA MARQUE — The students at Simms Elementary School giggled with delight as they watched the rest of the world learn about the secret gift they’ve been enjoying all school year.

On Sunday night, the episode of ABC’s “Oprah’s Big Give” that featured the La Marque Independent School District school aired.

A team on the reality show put together a fundraiser to help the school raise money for a playground, new computers and books.

As part of the fundraiser that took place last year, students from the school helped raise money at an auction at Westside Tennis Club in Houston.

On Sunday night, they saw themselves on their television screens and got to relive the moment they first saw their new playground.

Alliyah Adkins, a fifth-grader at Simms Elementary, said she already knew the playground equipment would be coming before she started playing on it this school year.

The new playground helps them be more active, she said.

“Before, we just sat around,” she said. “We have swings and slides now.”

Donald Caldwell, another fifth-grader at the school, said he helped raise money at the tennis club auction.

The money he helped raise went toward a place for him to play — something he said he didn’t have before.

The new playground is a place he said he’d want to go even on days school wasn’t in session, he said,

“The swings are the best,” he said. “We’ve got a basketball court.”

Caldwell was one of 200 students who went to the auction, which raised $210,000 for the playground.

Also at the auction, the school had 50 new computers donated to the district.

Simms Elementary wasn’t the only school honored on Sunday night’s episode of the show. Students at another Houston area school, Velasco Elementary, received Christmas presents on the show.

The show features 10 contestants who are challenged to find ways to influence the fates and fortunes of unsuspecting people who are in for the surprise of their lives. Each week, a member on a team who the show’s judges decide didn’t give away as much as they could is sent home.