Family Math Night Fun :)

Family Math Night was such a fun event for both the children and our class.  It was like a mini event for us to do the only thing we all love and look forward to pursuing in the next few years!  Makayla and I had decided to run a game called Catapult Math.  Students would get three little bears and using the catapult, they would launch each of them as far as they could.  Targets were then placed based on measurements in front of the catapult and how far their bears launched determined how many points each one got.  For example, 40 inches would earn them 40 points.  After I had measured out with them their points, I gave them a little card reading their three sets of points.  They would then be sent down to Makayla where they would add up their points to get their total score.

Students totaling methods varied greatly and I found it to be quite interesting!  Many of the students split the math into two columns.  For example, if their scores were 40, 32 and 25 they would add up the 0, 2 and 5 to get 7.  Then they would do the left column the same way, equaling 9 and making their total score 97.  The other common way students found their total was by concentrating on the first two scores and adding those up.  Using the same scores in the previous example, it would be 72.  They would then take 72 and add the third score of 25 to get their total of 97.  It was kind of fun to watch each of the kids and how fast some of them were blew my mind! Other ones were using their fingers and struggling more which gave me the opportunity to jump in and help them with the skills we've been taught and I think that's what I found to be the most fun!  It was a chance for us to go into teaching mode for a short period.  I think the scores is what got so many of the students so excited and coming back through so many times.  Our game was one where you could do better or worst and so for those more competitive children, this was right up their alley!  Especially the boys were getting so into the way they held the catapult or angled it in order to beat their previous score!

It was a great game because it involved math while also allowing students to be somewhat competitive.  We had two catapults on hand for those students who came to the game with a friend and wanted to do it at the same time.  It was so fun watching friends come through because the child who ended up with less points always wanted a rematch and we had groups coming through multiple times, two boys in particular came through 6 times!  I also found it interesting watching Makayla with the kids complete the math because the children had so many different methods when it came to addition.  Another thing that made me love our game was how into the children got, when the bears would land between targets, we would take a tape measure to measure out the exact distance.  They would run right over to me and if I said that I thought it was "37 points" they would be like "no I actually think its closer to 37 and a half or 38".  They were so cute about it that even if it wasn't necessarily 37.5 or 38 inches/points, I had to give it to them!

Most children were launching to about the 30-40 targets and even now and then we'd get a 50-60.  We had one girl come through and hit the 100 target exactly.  A herd of kids came running over because many of them had come to the conclusion that it was just not possible.  She was so proud and her face was priceless!  Shortly after that as we were reaching the end of the night, we had a boy come through and FAR surpass the 100 target.  We were so in shock along with his dad that his dad was messing around with him and said, "I bet you can't do it again son".  As any other young, competitive boy, he took it as a challenge and surprised us all by once again far surpassing the 100 point target.  His dad was so in awe that he decided to give it a whirl!  He tried it multiple times and couldn't even get past the 30, the boy felt like such a superstar!  He then made his dad take pictures of the catapult so they could recreate the game at home.  At the end of the night after clean-up we decided to give him one of the catapults as little reward as he was about to leave the school.  The smile on his face along with all the other children as they were leaving Family Math Night was just an awesome reminder as why I chose to go into teaching and why I love it so much!!

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