Math Monday: Family Math Night!

This is the 2nd year we've hosted a Family Math Night early in the school year.

We use games in our classroom and we've seen the power of these when it comes to math skills and strategy work.  We also use Games for homework a lot.  We want homework to be fun and stress free. We know kids work hard all day and are often tired at the end of a school day. The games and the talk around games is a powerful way to learn lots of math concepts.

A few years ago, we started to send home Math Boxes with our students.  We wanted kids to have all the math tools they needed in one spot so they could play math games at home.

Then last year, thanks to our colleague Katie DiCesare, we started to host a Family Math night in mid-September.  By mid-September, our kids have learned at least 3-4 math games well enough to teach someone else.  On Family Math Night, parents come in and play a game with their child then take home a folder of games as well as the Math Box of learning tools.

It is such a fun night!  Lots of laughing and cheering.  It is a nice time of year for families to get to know each other and to see the classroom. We know families are busy so they can stop by for 15 minutes or they can stay the full hour-whichever works. And for those who can't attend, we send the math box and folder of games home.

Throughout the year, we'll send new games home and we know our students have a spot to keep those games. And since most families have seen the fun in playing games and most have seen how much math is involved in each one, we hope they'll pull the games out and play once in a while.

Family Math Night is one of my favorite fall events now.