Who would have thought that running around a gym, yelling “Green Eggs and Ham,” has anything to do with learning your numbers sets?
Several of Salem’s youngest pupils and their parents know the answer, after attending Salem School’s Family Math Night on April 10. The program for kindergarten, first-, and second-grade students was designed to engage these children and their parents in the school’s math curriculum, according to Douglas Hammel, elementary school principal.
“Math education has changed a lot over the years,” Hammel said. “It’s generally the same concepts as in the past, but it is much more interactive, with thinking games, activities that require kids to use their reasoning skills, develop their ability to manipulate and use numbers, not just learn them.”
The school has about 150 students in these three grades, with a total of about 600 students in pre-k through middle school. After eighth grade, Salem students attend East Lyme High School.
Twenty-seven families showed up and participated in several games and activities in the school’s gym and math center. A dozen of the school’s sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders helped out with the evening.
Math curriculum support teacher Maryssa Reed organized the hands-on event. This is Reed’s first year on the job, which was recently redefined. She previously taught Salem fourth- and fifth-graders for the past seven years.
“I always loved teaching math; it was my favorite,” she said. “It’s been a great experience this year to move from K to 8 and see how the curriculum changes.”
In the necklace shop, sixth-graders Meagan Ryley and Molly Bennett, both 11, helped the younger children learn about patterns and counting. Depending on their age, each youngster was given either 96 or 25 cents. Their challenge was to pick out a collection of foam or plastic beads, design a pattern with them, and then measure and cut a 3-foot-long string and lace the beads.
Second-grader Allison Luck, 7, enjoyed making her necklace and figuring out how many 5- and 10-cent beads she could buy with the allocated 96 cents. The string cost 1 cent.
“This gives us more science-based activities to do. This is good,” said her mother, Debra. “Allison was excited to come tonight.”
Across the room, Corey Filewich, 6, got into geometry, arranging little squares, triangles, and trapezoid-shaped pieces to fit into larger configurations, while his father, Paul, looked on.
“I like making stuff,” said Corey, who attends kindergarten.
A couple of games based on the children’s game Go Fish helped the youngsters learn about the number 10. They identified what groups of numbers equaled or were greater or less than 10. These games are designed to help young students learn counting math strategies and develop fluency and efficiency with numbers over time.
“We focus a lot on problem solving,” Reed said. “It’s important for parents to understand the importance of games in teaching math to young students. That practice and repetition is so important.”
Math has always been a part of the Connecticut Mastery Testing, which starts at grade 3.
“I think we’ve got a really well-balanced math program going here,” Hammel said. “It is a pretty comprehensive set of skills our kids are expected to have exposure to and to master.”
In the gym, physical education teacher Amy Beardsley introduced families to a couple of games she has created to help students learn math concepts while further building their motor skills and reflexes.
Parents and kids alike played “Scrambled Eggs,” a game that sent them walking, running, and galloping around the gym with fleece balls (the eggs) to form sets of two, three, four, or more players whenever the teacher yelled “Green Eggs and Ham” and a number. Beardsley explained that the game helps young students develop their locomotor skills, space awareness, and ability to cooperate and pick different partners while literally learning their numbers on the run.
“One of the things we develop in PE is highly skilled movers, being able to move around the place without any collisions,” she said. “We also want them to learn how to play with everyone else in the class, not just a few friends.”
Another game, called Math Challenge, was a numbers version of “rock, paper, scissors,” only the players held up fingers on one or both hands and saw who could first call out “greater,” “less than,” or “equals.” Beardsley said she uses this to get in sustained cardiovascular work by keeping the kids running to different locations to choose new partners while reinforcing their understanding of relationships of numbers without the pressure of a classroom math drill.
Beardsley thought up the games after attending some workshops offered by the Connecticut Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.
“I think this is awesome,” said parent Eva Merriman, who has a kindergartner. “It’s good to see this interactive approach.”
“Mrs. Beardsley is wonderful at tying together physical education and movement activities with the curricular areas,” Hammel said.
This has been the first Family Math Night program in at least seven years, according to Reed.
“This support teacher position has been a real benefit to the math curriculum,” Hammel said. “Maryssa has been able to help kids and to work with the teachers to help in how they teach math. We try to hit on all the different learning styles.”
This year’s program for K through 2 students was a pilot, Reed said. Based on participant feedback, she hopes to expand the program into some of the upper grades. The school hasn’t done science nights yet, she said, but those could be next.
Organizers thanked Starbucks in Colchester for its support of the evening with coffee and treats.