Math day adds up for McNair Elementary students

by Brian Stelter

Special to The Gazette

June 9, 2004

Students at Ronald McNair Elementary School counted coins, played probability games and rearranged geometric figures during the school's fourth annual math day June 1.

Event organizer Janet Moore, an instructional data assistant at McNair, said the day stresses the importance of math in everyday life.

"Math is everywhere," she said. "I kept hearing so many kids say 'I don't like math,' so I was trying to find a way to be positive about the subject."

Moore said the day could be described as an academic field day. It included lessons on shapes, fractions, time, place value and money. Students played games, solved puzzles, listened to stories and sang along with puppets.

"I love math day," fourth-grader Tara Nicholas said. She couldn't decide which activity was her favorite.

"There's so many different things to choose from," she said. "They were all really fun."

Every teacher planned a math-related activity. Classes rotated to each teacher in their grade level.

In Jessica Jackson's fourth grade class, students played Measurement Jeopardy using a computer program hooked up to a TV screen. Students divided themselves into teams of three or four, with names like Germantown Maniacs and Math Masters.

"We'll pick area for 400," fourth-grader Denis Gkeivelopoulos said.

"Find the area of the shape," the question read. An L-shaped object was displayed on the screen.

"That's easy!," he replied, and started scribbling the answer on a note card.

Gkeivelopoulos said later that Jeopardy was his favorite activity. He added that it was fun to focus on one topic all day.

"Math is my favorite subject because it uses your brain a lot," he said.

In two afternoon performances, the Blue Sky Puppet Theatre spent "a day at the beach" to demonstrate math's significance. The puppets used math to build a sand castle, buy lunch and rent a boogie board.

"The performance gives the kids a realistic idea that math is everywhere," Moore said. "You're not going to get away from it."

The students sang along during the show. "Math is cool, I use it everyday," they repeated as they waved their arms in the air. Some students kept singing the song as they walked back to class.

After the puppet show, Holly Walker's third grade class learned about money. "Math is Eggciting," the classroom door proclaimed. Students read a book about how money is made, and played a game using coins and an egg carton.

"What do eggs have to do with math?" Walker asked the class. They responded with answers about the number of eggs and the price of each carton.

Walker then asked the class where money comes from. "Usually money comes from trees," one girl said. She clarified she was referring to pulp used to make paper money.

Jennifer Lewy's first grade classes also learned about money. For her class, math day served as an opportunity to revisit lessons from earlier in the year.

"All our games are based on something they have already learned how to do," Lewy said as students played a game called The Greedy Pig. It was designed to test their understanding of money.

Teachers were careful to tailor their lessons to each grade level. Melisa Herczeg challenged her fifth grade classes with pentominoes. Students tried to arrange a variety of shapes to fit perfectly within a rectangular area.

"The students have to do a lot of abstract thinking," Herczeg said. "They really have to use their mind to visualize it."

She walked around the classroom and encouraged the students to think creatively.

"There are a thousand ways to solve it," she told the class. "You really have to think about it."

Fifth-grader Josh Stewart said it was his favorite activity of the day.

"It's like a puzzle," he said as he cut out and colored the shapes. "I like being able to focus on math the whole day."