Rattle, rattle, roll! The first graders were all smiles as they shook little cups and spilled out ten little beans. They eagerly counted how many were painted in pumpkin orange and how many were little white ghosts and charted the results. What added to the excitement of the simple math game was that the students weren’t playing with their classmates—they were paired up with their parents, grandparents and other family members!
Black and Orange Family Math Games are a first-grade favorite tradition at Katonah Elementary. The morning combines growing math skills with seasonal fun and special visitors! It was just one of many pumpkin math activities that took place at Katonah-Lewisboro’s elementary schools this fall.
“These special events bring math to life in the most delightful and engaging ways,” said teacher Lisa Burroughs, the District’s curriculum integration leader for math in kindergarten through second grade.
At Increase Miller Elementary, second graders worked with parent volunteers to estimate, then measure more than a dozen pumpkins' circumference, height and weight. It was important to pull out all the pulp to count every single seed!
“I estimated our pumpkin would have 25 seeds,” said one of the students. “We had 436!"
“Pumpkin Math reinforces number sense,” said second grade teacher Heather Resnick, referring to the ability to understand, relate to and work with numbers. She mentioned place value, estimating, measuring, and skip counting as some of the skills included in festive activity.
Parents also provided hands-on help at Meadow Pond's Pumpkin Math. Second graders got their hands dirty while learning through observations, investigations, brainstorming, analyzing, discovery and drawing conclusions. "Their cooperation, participation, and laughter made the event a great success!" said teacher Jill Walsh.
Burroughs said that the seasonal math games underscored the importance of manipulative and interactive learning, making math both fun and meaningful for young learners.
Students enjoyed the sweet treat of sitting with a parent at their classroom table or on their classroom carpet … and parents loved the special time together.
“That was fun!” a student said to his parent, walking hand-in-hand down the hall, in-between games.