Principles For Principals: Celebrate Math Month with a Family Math Night!Author(s): Bunny Parish and Winnie PetersonSource: The Arithmetic Teacher, Vol. 36, No. 7 (March 1989), pp. 24-25Published by: National Council of Teachers of MathematicsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41193637 .

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Celebrate Math Month with a Family Math Night! Research Parents of elementary school students often request ideas and materials to help their children learn mathematics in a home environment. According to NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards (Commission on Standards for School Mathematics of the NCTM 1987), becoming a mathematical prob- lem solver, learning to communicate mathematically, learning to reason mathematically, learning to value mathematics, and becoming confident in one's ability should be goals for all students studying mathematics today. What better way to suggest and dem- onstrate to parents motivating, hands- on ideas for accomplishing these goals than to arrange an evening for parents and children to work together learning mathematics and having fun while do- ing it!

Edited by Bunny Parish Wheatley Elementary School Apopka, FL 32703 Prepared by Winnie Peterson Colonial School District Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

Winnie Peterson is coordinator of Colonial School District, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462. She works with mathematics teachers in grades K-12.

Principals of the Month In cooperation with the district math- ematics coordinator, each elementary school principal in the Colonial School District, Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, sponsored a Family Math Night as part of the April 1988 Math Month celebration. Dates, times, and locations were placed on the September 1987 district calendar. Principals were responsible for their school's publicity and for local ar- rangements. Students had to be ac- companied by an adult to the hour-

long programs (7:30-8:30 p.m.), which attracted from 50 to 150 parents and children.

Principle of the Month As a school principal you, too, can implement a family math night. If you do not have a district or school math- ematics specialist, a group of teachers can put together the activities under your supervision. Keep in mind that the demonstration should be activity oriented, brief, cooperative, fun, and confidence building. Plans for six ac-

24 Arithmetic Teacher

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tivities guarantee a fun-filled hour. Be sure to include some inexpensive prizes such as I V MATH buttons that can easily be made by parent organizations.

The following are sample activities for family math nights:

Graphing. Place a large, blank bar graph entitled "What Month Were You Born?" on the wall. As students and parents arrive, have them color a box above the appropriate month with a magic marker. When all the informa- tion is graphed, discuss the graph with the group by asking such questions as "In which month were most people here tonight born?" "How can we count how many people are here to- night by using the graph?" "What other way could we have found out what month people were born?" "What advantage does our graph have over other ways?"

Estimation. Supply each child and parent with a piece of string or yarn. Hold up a coffee can for the group to observe. Without actually measuring the can, participants estimate its cir- cumference and cut the string accord- ingly. Participants then actually mea- sure the circumference of the can with their string and tape it to a piece of construction paper on the wall labeled "Too Long," "Too Short," or "Just Right." Discuss the results displayed on the wall charts and comment that estimating skills will improve with practice. Award prizes to the partici- pants who guess "just right."

Problem solving. Assign a dollar value to each letter of the alphabet, for example, A = $1, В = $2, С = $3, and so on. Challenge the students and parents to make words worth exactly $20, $50, and $100. For example, CAP = $3 + $1 + $16 = $20. Com- plete charts on the wall with correct responses for each amount. Award prizes of large play money (sold as note paper) corresponding to the value of correct responses.

For more information consult any issue of the Arithmetic Teacher or Family Math (Stenmark, Thompson, and Cossey 1986).

References

Commission on Standards for School Mathe- matics of the National Council Of Teachers of Mathematics. Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. Working Draft. Reston, Va.: The Council, 1987.

Stenmark, Jean Kerr, Virginia Thompson, and Ruth Cossey. Family Math. Berkeley, Calif.: FAMILY MATH Network, EQUALS, 1986. m

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