Math Night: Lots of Fun!

Yahtzee was one of the many popular board
games at Math Night. 

Our math curriculum director and coaches hosted a Math Night for students and family members. The cafeteria was transformed into a math game room with estimation jars, giant graphs, and lots and lots of board games. Also, next to each game, there was a card that described the mathematical connection of the game to students' math learning. There were also booklets available with information about math card games and many decks of cards.

Students and family members came with big smiles ready to play games with each other, teachers, leaders, and friends. The room was a busy hive of happy mathematical thinking. Also, every fifteen minutes or so the curriculum director stopped the crowd and announced a vocabulary-rich math problem. If a student's name tag number matched the problem solution, he/she won a small prize. That added more mathematical thinking and some excitement to the event as well.

I spent most of the night playing a favorite childhood game, Yahtzee, with one of my students and his dad. We talked a lot about math strategy and had fun playing the game.

The event was well timed for young children and busy teachers since there was a 6pm start time and 7:30 end. At first I was a little reluctant to get involved given that it's a busy time in the school year, but in the end I found myself looking forward to next year's Math Night as it was a terrific opportunity to enjoy math with students and their families. Thanks to the team who sponsored this wonderful event!