Family Math Night

[Carrie in WV]

Last year we hosted our first Family Reading Night. It was a huge success and many parents told me it was the best program the school ever had. That was exciting. This year we want to host a Family Math Night. None of us have ever done anything like this before. I am calling it "An Old Fashioned 'Pi' Supper" and we are selling pizza and homemade pies. We are going to be set up in the gym for games and activities.

Anyone out there have any ideas for the things we could do? We have Bingo, bowling (for the kindergarten); I am going to set up a station where the kids can have fun averaging with baseball cards, and doing some activities with 'pi', but some of the other teachers are stuck for ideas. Any would be appreciated!

 

[RebeccaH]

Maths Night

Someone posted this on the old boards and answers were given so it might pay to go back. I can't remember if I posted an answer or not. We have had several. Chn love measuring eg the toy snakes how many snakes long are certain items. Money. Interlocking cubes take a photo and the children have to build the same or say they can only have 15 blocks what can you build. Who can build something long, short. What age are the children and I will have a think?

 

[Carrie in WV]

Thanks

We are K-6. I thought about going to the old board, but I wanted to post on the new one to be supportive of the editors!! Thanks, I will check it out on my break today.

 

[RebeccaH]

Maths Night

Me again. Yes the boards are very slow at the moment. I am on holidays (Australia so come more often) There are posts on the old boards (Just looked.) but some other ideas. Dice activities eg graphing the results after 10 throws, + - sums using dice. Any basic games eg snakes and ladders. Use playing cards only numbered ones. Again + or - sums. Do you have computers. Any CD's you have or if on the internet try ABC games Count Us In. I posted about smarties on the old board. You can use them for a wide variety of activities. One year for an open morning we spent over an hour with these.
We found the parents liked activites that they could use at home and often didn't realise by playing these the children were developing their maths skills.

 

[tia]

2 ideas

for one of our math nights, i once counted our celing tiles and our floor tiles (before we had carpet). then one of my stations was to estimate how many of each of those there were--with a prize for closest!

one thing i do with my class when reviewing place value:
i have boards with rectangles and labels: thousands, hundreds, ones...(for the older kids you could make with decimals). and i have laminated cards with numbers i made 0-9. you could use deck of cards without the face cards. kids play against each other--taking one card from the upside-down faced deck. they have to decide where the number will go in order to make the largest (or smallest) number. so if i drew an 8, i would put it in the thousands column, and a 2 would go in the ones....you just can't move a card once you've placed it.

 

[Jill]

fourth grade teacher

Our school has hosted 3 math nights over the last 5 years. Another teacher and I planned the activities. We did more station oriented ideas after having pizza in the cafe. Our idea was for the parents to do math with thie children. We did items such as: solving problems with pattern blocks, pentominoes, and tangrams. The parents and children really loved manipulating the tangrams. We had teachers read the story Grandfather Tang (I think that's the title) and then do various problems. We have a tangram diecut, so we cut out pieces for every family to take home. We also played PIG - multiplication game that was enjoyed by all. One year we had a read aloud with the Hershey fraction book and gave each a Hershey Bar to play with and eat. If you're interested in any more ideas - I could e-mail them to you as an attachment. My e-mail is gilbert@greencastle.k12.pa.us

 

[Carrie in WV]

I emailed you...

Be looking for an email from me. Thanks!

 

[S_Manly]

Math War

I've used "Math War" for all different grades as an activity to help pass time. It's just like old fashioned war w/ a deck of cards and depending on the grade level there is a different type of math activity (younger addition, older multiplication, etc.). Both students lay down 2 cards (1 each) and whomever can yell out the answer first to the problem wins the cards... the student with the most cards wins. So if I lay down a 3 and you lay down a 4 and you yell out 7 (for addition) or 12 (multiplication) then you win.

Sorry if the explanation seems juvenile, it's late and I'm trying to explain this & realizing I'm explaining like I would to my class... sorry. Good luck!!

 

[Carrie in WV]

That's Ok

Sometimes I find myself explaining things to my husband like that...

 

[Jennmcg]

Ideas

I would love to see your ideas for a family Math Night. Our school is planning one for next spring and I would certainly enjoy seeing what ideas others have used with success!

 

[Venessa]

4th grade teacher

All of the post on ideas for math family night were very interesting. I am definitely going to encourage my colleagues at school as well as the PTA to include this event in our planning of activities.

 

[Carla D]

Math Night

Hi Gilbert,
My school is planning a Math/Science Night and I don't have a clue where to start. Would you please email me what you did at your school for math night. I greatly appreciate any and all help.

 

[math314]

I need help for math night

I need to organize a math night in the spring around March Madness-college basketball. I need help with ideas, food, organization, and door prizes (tickets to games, Harlem globetrotters, etc..) Please help!!