Math Night!

Don't you just LOVE it when you work hard on something and it turns out fabulous... :)There were a few times this year when I've worked with other teachers on school events (or even open house) and I've been disappointed in what we as a school offered/presented or in the turn out of families. But this time, we had much more success! Now I'm not going to actually tell you how many parents we had show up from our three 2nd grade classes, most of you will probably laugh because it's not much, but I just feel so happy that my, and our, hard work paid off!! 


Here's what we did: 

In the hall we had a sign in sheet, some snacks, an estimation station and a raffle table. We did all of our parent "stuff" inside my classroom and had a super awesome game in the hall (my teaching partner, who was hired the day before Winter Break, is fantastic!! She's worked so hard already in the < 3 weeks she has been here and we just love her!)


Anywho - here's my "welcome" table. I found these great white (cheap) gift bags at Hobby Lobby. Any kiddos who came with their parents could decorate their goody bag at the purple table. The parents were also able to pick up their folder here. Instead of stuffing alll the papers into folders, I decided to put out the handouts. I feel like this way parents will at least take a glance and ask questions if they have any!




The red table had some teacher created handouts about some of the concepts we are covering in math. I made some handouts for parents about: Rounding, 2-digit addition, base-10 blocks, and ballpark estimates. If you're interested in seeing handouts I created, leave a comment... seems like too much work at this point to upload them all :-)




The blue table was my *fav*! We created some math games, copied games from wonderful teacher-friends, and found/made some manipulatives to send home too! Ooo and we laminated 100s charts for the parents to take home, too. 

Here's the "Math is Sweet" Cakewalk that my teaching partner did! She put yellow papers on the floor in a circle, just like a cakewalk; she played music, just like a cakewalk; she even had a STROBE LIGHT! Yes, a strobe light... at math night... awesome :) She would call a number out to name the winner of the round, but the spots on the floor didn't just have a number. They were a clock, or a math problem, or a set of base ten blocks, or coins - and when the music stopped the students had to figure out what their number was before the teacher called the number. 


And to top it off, she'd announce "Math is Sweet!!!" and give the kiddos got to pick a sweet treat as a prize - yay!!




WHEW! Ok, I'm done.. long post but a GREAT end to the day, and I needed it. Today was a little crazy and a lot stressful. Hope you all had a great day :)
Oh yea, and to top it off, our staff spirit wear came in today! Looks just fabulous! And the best part, my hoodie sweatshirt has my last name on it. Might not be that exciting to others but I got married just five months ago so my (still) NEW last name is on my sweatshirt! Yipee :-)

Sorry if there are any typos... my kitten Stella tells me that I'm done with my blog for the night :) 


Good night and happy Thursday!


*Amanda