Beasley Lower School students and teachers welcomed parents to Math Mornings on October 18-19. Parents were invited to join their children for special math-focused activities designed for each grade level. Following are some examples.
Senior Kindergarten: Students played three math games with their parents so that they could learn them and play at home. The math concepts emphasized were counting, finding the difference, composing numbers (number bonds) and using target mathematical vocabulary.
First Grade: Students made mathematician hats and gift bags full of game boards and game pieces for three math games that they found in their textbook and adapted into hands on games. When parents arrived, the first grade teachers led a brief discussion about what math looks like in first grade (whole group lessons, small group lessons, smartboard activities, computer enrichment, and both teacher directed and student directed math centers). The discussion then transitioned to the skills that would be used during the math games the students would be playing and differentiation for each game to make them more challenging if needed. Parents and students enjoyed playing the games together.
Second Grade: Second graders showed their parents how they can practice math facts using popular children’s games such as Concentration, BINGO, and War (now called Top It). Students and parents also practiced using a deck of cards and online computer games, and worked on bar modeling.
Third Grade: Third graders played games with their parents that enabled them to practice their subtraction skills up to 10,000. Games included Tic Tac 1000, where the object was to make as many 1000s on a tic tac toe board as possible. Students also used the virtual manipulatives on the National Library of Manipulatives website to show regrouping in subtraction using number blocks and practiced subtraction with a partner, rolling dice to name the digits and then deciding which number could be subtracted from the other.
Fourth Grade: Students worked with their parents to solve word problems using bar models. This 8-step strategy helps the students to organize the information in the problem and represent their thinking pictorially. This is a step on the way to eventually solving problems algebraically.
“One look at the pictures illustrates the best aspect of the morning, that numbers and problem solving are not only engaging and useful, but fun. And especially fun when shared with loved ones,” said Lower School Head Janet McMillion of the excitement generated by this event. “On a morning like this, parents get a window into what our math program looks like and how their child learns when working with mathematics.”