Math Day

Math Day 2015

      Every year on the day that some schools are celebrating Valentine's Day, my school is celebrating Math Day. many of the teachers focus on Valentine's day and graph color and do "Valentine" math. It actually makes it possible for us to celebrate all day instead of being limited to a small time frame  of a party.

       I enjoy this very much. It means that the whole entire day can be devoted to anything involving math. We do pass out Valentines during non instructional times, but we fill the day with many hands on activities. Since I teach second grade, it take s the children quite a while to do some things. Last year I drove myself crazy trying to do a million things. this year I was more realistic. We did two STEM activities, measured ingredients for "snow" and had a guest reader.

     It sounds small, but I have found that when my students are doing stem activities, they need more time. I really focus on them creating, and being able to use non standard materials to create. This has been a great challenge for my students this year.  I have several students who are very intimidated making and creating things from scratch. A few of them actually get very upset before they get started. It is for this reason I focus on their creations and not so much recording data. They made great strides towards becoming great problem solvers and adventurous creators.

Here are some pics from our Math Day!