Whole School Maths Fun Day
Every day, I wake up to my alarm clock at 6:20, drink some coffee and have 2 slices of toast cut in halves, then I take a 20-minute car ride to school. Numbers are all around us, and it's very interesting when you think about it!!
On Monday the 9th students celebrated for the first time a Maths Fun Day with a series of fun activities centered on Mathematics. Students came in fancy dress with t-shirts decorated with formulas and other sensational maths costumes.
The students participated in an online Maths incursion called The Maths Show as well as in various challenges. Students across the school played several games, including a math-themed scavenger hunt and there was also a battle of the minds in a maths quiz.
We planned the events of the day with the goal of inspiring students to appreciate mathematics as a useful and important subject with numerous applications in our everyday lives.
Some of the amazing costumes
Some of the highlights were:
- A Maths trail
The children in Grades Prep, One and Two completed a Maths scavenger hunt outside whereby they had to identify and find patterns, 3D objects and numbers around the school.
Maths scavenger hunt Year 1 Grade 1
Year 2 enjoying the Maths scavenger hunt
Prep’s enjoying the Maths scavenger hunt
- Maths Minute to Win it challenges
All students participated in various Maths Minute to Win it challenges while working in small groups. It was wonderful to see students encouraging each other to complete the challenges in a minute!
- Maths Art
The students in Years 3, 4 , 5 and 6 created some amazing optical illusion drawings using simple straight and curvy lines.
The students in Years Prep, One and Two created some amazing patterns with chalk outside on the basketball courts.
Chalk art by Prep, One and Two
Optical illusion artwork by Grade 4 students
- Picture story books linked to Mathematics
The students in Years Prep, One and Two read two of my favourite Maths books, One Hundred Hungry Ants by Eliner J Pinczes and What The Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson. The books were used to link the maths concepts of location and ways to represent the number 100.
The role of picture books in the learning of mathematics is so powerful . A number of studies have been carried out on this topic from different perspectives and all have concluded that picture books contribute to the development of mathematical understanding of children.
The children in Grade 1 read the picture story book called What The Ladybird Heard and created their own farms out of lego and used different locational language to explain their farm.
The Grade Two children representing 100 in different ways such as 10 groups of 10 is 100.
- The Great Maths Quiz
The students in Years 3, 4 , 5 and 6 battled it out and tested their maths skills in an online Maths Quiz hosted by Mrs Rayner.
Congratulations to the following grades who won: 6 Yellow, 4 Green, 3 Red and 5 Green!
- The Great Maths show
All students watched and interacted in this online Maths incursion. The three shows combined humour and audience interaction with the amazing wonder and beauty of numbers to help students see maths from a different angle.
The Maths Show was full of mathematical history, magic, comedy, puzzles and more – all designed to boost engagement with maths, and promote problem solving and mathematical reasoning.
By all accounts the students loved the Maths Fun Day and were really excited to complete Maths activities that were more than just calculating sums and writing answers in a book. The day was a great way to get the children thinking about Maths in non-traditional ways, proving that it can be fun and enjoyed by everyone, whatever their ability!
What was fantastic to see was that even children who don’t usually like Maths found at least one aspect of it that they could enjoy and be enthusiastic about.
And that’s what education at St Simon’s is really all about!
Regards
Monica Rayner
School Maths Leader
Teaching and Learning Leader