Family Math Night

Our school recently had Family Math Night as a way to teach students and parents games they can play at home to reinforce basic math skills. At the first grade table, students played "Place Value War." In this game, each player takes two cards from the top of the stack. They then determine who can build the largest number with their two cards. For example, if I drew a 6 and a 4, I could make 64. Whoever built the largest number, keeps the cards. The player with the most cards at the end wins. You could also play this by adding the two numbers and whoever has the greatest sum wins.

Math and Science Family Night

Last Thursday we had a great turnout for our annual Math and Science Night. Congratulations to Carmen for being a winner in the Math and Science Night poster contest! In first grade, the students could make constellations in the science room or play addition and place value games in the math room. In science, the students placed a printout of a constellation on top of a piece of black paper. They then used a push pin to punch a hole where the stars were located. When they held up the black paper to a light, they could see the light through the holes and the constellation shape. In math, they could play "Go Fish to Ten." In this game, it is played like the traditional "Go Fish" game but instead of playing for a matching card, they ask for the card that would add up to ten with their card. Whoever had the most cards at the end won the game. In the other math game, each player would take two cards from the stack and make the biggest number possible. For example, if they drew a six and an eight, the greatest number they could build was eighty-six. Whichever partner had the greatest number overall got to keep the cards. Whoever had the most cards at the end won the game. These are games that can be easily played at home with a simple deck of cards.

Literacy Cafe

Last Thursday night some of the students participated in our 2nd annual Literacy Cafe! Some of the students were hosts and hosstesses. They took the guests to their tables where they were greeted by student waiters and waitresses. They then took the guests orders which they took to the "kitchen" where the orders were filled. The guests could choose one appetizer, one entree, or one dessert. These were actually student readers. For our grade, the appetizers were riddles, the entrees were short books, and the desserts were tongue twisters. The good news is that there were so many guests and the "kitchen" was so busy, I did not get a chance to take many pictures at the cafe. But, I did manage to snap this cute shot of two of our readers!