Maths Mania Week

Years K - 6

Summary

Celebrating children's efforts to learn is one of the principles of Calculating Changes that helps build a best practice learning environment. Maths Mania is a form of celebration. It is no more difficult to organise than a Round Robin sports event and it helps make maths fun. In fact, as the children are having their maths fun, the teacher is able to consider the features of the event that make it fun, with a view to including those features in the day to day learning.

Materials

  • A range of stimulating maths activities

Acknowledgement

This activity was contributed by Toni Popowski, Smithton Primary School.
Read about similar mathematics festivals at the Mathematics Task Centre:

Procedure

Toni writes:
We held a Maths Mania week, where the materials from the Project were the central focus.
(Editor's Note: Project refers to Changing Places. See Evaluations of Calculating Changes.)
We had tasks out from the Mathematics Task Centre and activities from Calculating Changes.
 

Content

The content range in an activity like this is very wide. However, perhaps the most important content featues are:
  • mathematical conversation
  • problem solving
  • It was set up in the school assembly hall for one week.
  • Classes visited for 1 -1·5 hours.
  • It was based on hands-on problem solving, 'real life' maths and having fun.
  • Central to this was the task centre kits set out in hoops around the room.
  • I also set up the Poly Plugs with activities.
  • Geoshapes were set up too.
  • Teachers shared an activity as well so that all grades were catered for.
Children also had the opportunity to make a shop. They had to come up with problems appropriate to their shop across all grades. Shops were put in a street around the room on a road with cars. The street was named Decimal Point as in Battery Point near Hobart.


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