Family Math Night
having fun with math, at home
“My second grader had so much fun and so did my 4-year-old. We’re doing round two tomorrow!” “We had a blast!” “My daughter said, ‘This is the best night of my life!’” “My son’s favorite was Spin and Color a Fraction.”
Dozens of Meadow Pond families had a different kind of weekday evening on Wednesday, January 24, and this was just some of the feedback that parents sent to school the following day.
They were talking about Family Math Night, a pilot program to bring math into family life, much like PARP reinforces reading at home.
Math with Mom
Students and Signore make how to videos
Created by Math Interventionist Amy Signore
It was created by Amy Signore, one of Katonah-Lewisboro’s curriculum leaders for elementary math.
Signore said that Family Math Night grew out of her desire for families to have fun doing math together. She knew that math homework can be frustrating some evenings, and she wanted families to see how much fun math can be.
She was also aware of another conflicting demand on parents’ time each evening: dinner.
A big, crazy idea began to hatch.
Meadow Pond PTO Support Helped Make it Happen
The math interventionist knew which math games were best at reinforcing key skills—and that children loved: games like Four in a Row, Number Match, Watermelon Fun, Shark Tank and Place Value Pickle. She made packets of three games for each grade level; cover sheets featuring QR codes took families to how-to videos that Signore created with student helpers.
The Meadow Pond PTO loved the idea of connecting school and home through math, and purchased the dice, tokens and other simple game pieces.
Before teachers began telling parents about Family Math Night, Signore had one more idea.
Could they take dinner off parents’ to-do list? Would local restaurants support math night?
They would! South Salem restaurants LaVista and LaFamilia each agreed to offer two dinner deals for take-out on Family Math Night.
"A great way to get everyone together!"
On Wednesday, January 24, an hour after dismissal, 91 Meadow Pond families picked up game bags.
Their next stop: picking up dinner, opening the game bag and deciding if they should play Spin and Color a Fraction or Doubles Bingo first.
“Everything a family received in their game bag is theirs to keep,” said Signore, adding a huge thank you to the PTO for their generosity in supporting Family Game Night. “We want families to be able to play the games over and over again.”
