Are you looking for fun and easy ideas for your school’s math night? Look no further! Here are 6 of my favorite activities for family math night at school. From simple crafts to entire themes, this list has it all.
Let’s get to planning!
6 Math Night Ideas
My school typically hosts one math night each year to foster parental involvement and offer a fun night out for families. But, I know that as teachers our plates are always full. The thought of planning a station for math night can be a bit overwhelming.
To help ease a bit of your math night stress, I have put together a list of my favorite activities!
1. Math About Me
I have used this activity during the first week of school and on family math nights. However, I have found it works best when families are present.
Students can work with their families to come up with different ways to describe themselves using math. Then, they will be able to use the provided materials to create the self-portrait craft. Bonus points for fun materials like googly eyes and yarn (for the hair).
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All About Me Math Craft
$3.75
2. STEM Fun
STEM projects are a wonderful way to engage both the young and not-so-young. These challenges encourage problem-solving, teamwork, and thinking outside of the box, which are all important math skills.
Some of my favorite STEM challenges to do during a family math night include building and measuring the distance of paper airplane flights, building a bridge to hold the most weight, and tower-building contests (with various materials).
For extra math components, set up “math night store”. You can have each student/family “buy” their materials from the store. This is a great way to have students use their money skills in a real-world situation.
3. Gingerbread Glyphs
If your math night happens to fall in the months of November or December, you could tie in some holiday cheer with a fun Gingerbread Glyphs activity!
Lay out various cookie decorating supplies on the table and give each person a gingerbread man. Families will then generate data by decorating the cookies according to a glyph key. Each item represents something about the child who made it.
Then, students will trade their cookie with their family members to try to interpret the glyph. If you have extra time, you could also form a group graph and use the themed task cards for added math work!
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4. Domino Math
For those of you who are looking for a super simple station to add to your school’s family math night, Domino Math is your answer! All you need are dominos and a table to play. Then students and their families can play “domino war” (similar to war with cards).
Each player chooses a domino and performs the specified math operation (adding, subtracting, or multiplying). The player with the biggest answer keeps both dominoes.
5. Math BINGO
Math BINGO is typically a fan-favorite at every math night. Start by printing out cards with different sums, differences, or products (depending on the age of students). Then, call out different equations. Players can cover the right answer. First player to get 5 in a row receives a prize!
6. Math Carnival
If you are a teacher who loves to go over the top, planning a full math carnival theme is a fun way to impress the families! You can assign a different math carnival game to each teacher in attendance. Then, students can walk around to spend their tickets on the different games (with prizes, of course).
Some fun carnival games that you could include at a family math night include a place value bean bag toss, an estimation game (ex: how many suckers are in the jar), a math equation cakewalk, and a subtraction bowling game. Truly, the options are endless!
Activities for a Family Math Night at School
I hope these ideas help to take some of the stress away from math night while adding some fun to everyone’s evening. If you have any other fun activities for a family math night, I’d LOVE to hear them. Leave me a comment below to share your favorites!
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