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For students, parents, Math Night equals fun
By LORRI HELFAND © St. Petersburg Times, published January 23, 2001 Stan Brzoska leans over his granddaughter's shoulder as she decides what she wants on an imaginary pizza. Nicole Brown guides her daughter's hand as she writes "five" next to a picture of five pinto beans. And Jeff McKinney beams proudly as his son whips together geometric puzzles in record time. All are taking part in North Ward Elementary School's Math Night, an evening math fair featuring an assortment of games, puzzles and activities geared to each grade level. Teachers drew from workbooks as well as ingenuity to create an environment that would get parents involved and show kids that math can be fun. "We want to make the parents feel welcome and let them see what their children are learning," second-grade teacher Lisa Freeman said. According to first-grade teacher Karen Stewart, the fair is a great ice-breaker because parents sometimes are intimidated by traditional conferences. "It gets the families and the kids into school in an informal way," she said. Susan Mierski, a first-grade teacher, said the informal setting helps children challenge themselves to learn even more. "If they're relaxed, they might be more apt to take a risk," she said. Because families can take part in all of the activities at the fair, parents were able to see the type of work their children will be taking on in years to come. To keep energy up for the two-hour affair, the school served submarine sandwiches, potato chips and sodas to the group of 50 parents and children. According to first-grade teacher Kathy Wickett, the food will guarantee an even bigger turnout next year. In one classroom, Alexander McKinney, 7, sat on the floor, sliding the final piece of a puzzle into place. "See? I've done three puzzles already. It's a piece of cake for me," he said. At a table nearby, first-grader Kayla Bates, 6, hunched over a table, constructing a diamond-shaped figure with toothpicks and gumdrops. "Diamonds are called," she hesitated, searching for the word. "Rhombus," she added, grinning. In the room next door, several children were clustered around a table playing board games created by laminating figures onto manila folders. Kindergartener Liam Lathan hovered over one of the makeshift board games, decorated with neon monsters. "I didn't realize how much he was into math until tonight," said his mother, Brandy. On the other end of the room, fourth-grader Zack Maloney, 10, was crunching numbers as he sat at the Math Pizzeria, complete with imaginary menus, money and pizza pies. Many of the kids gravitated to the computer lab to play math games with themes like shuffleboard, paddle ball and rain games. Lane Libby and his second-grade son found their way to the lab. Like most of the parents who showed up for Math Night, Libby said he and his wife make it a priority to be involved in their children's schoolwork. "We like to participate in school outings," he said. "And get beat by the kids on the computer," he added as he rolled his eyes. After playing math board games with her children, Dee Williams decided to do some exploration of her own. She looked a bit perplexed as she fiddled with one of the computer geometry games. "I'm finding out that they're learning a lot more than I learned in elementary school," she said.
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