Students at South Street Elementary Learning Center got the chance to see the world in a new light.
Last Friday, students participated in the school's first "Math Fair" where they got the chance to see how math can be found outside the classroom.
South Street teacher Lori Murphy came up with the idea, but she stressed that she didn't put it all together on her own. "Everybody was involved. Everybody was on board. Everyone here was very supportive," she said.
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Photo by Jacob Perryman
Having a ball
Kindergarten students Malone Arzner, Timothy Koebley, Conner Hilliard, Elizabeth Solberg, Dakota Sliter, Caitlin Barney, Alexander Domingos, Jade Chan, Loralei Massa and Kylee Bidwell at South Street Elementary Learning Center participated in the beach ball station during the school’s first Math Fair last Friday.
"It's to get kids engaged in math and give them something that applies in the everyday world," Murphy noted. "We just wanted to show students that math is all around them."
The school's improvement team, headed by Brian Reynolds, spearheaded planning of the event. It also received help from the students' parents and monetary support from the school's parent teacher organization, BiLo and Topps.
"We just wanted to give the kids a chance to mingle together," said Reynolds. "It's the end of the school year and it's something to keep their attention."
According to Murphy, the entire student body, approximately 300 kindergarten and first-grade students, participated. Teacher Jennifer Fritz broke students into 14 mixed grade level groups. Each group was assigned to a teacher who took them to one of seven different teachers, Title I aide or volunteer parent manning activity stations. After 20 minutes, the groups rotated to a new station. Identical sets of the seven stations were operated in the upstairs and downstairs of the school.
"It's fun," teacher Pam Taylor said of the event. "The kids are having a good time."
Students participated in a beach ball station where they were asked to catch a ball with numbers written on it and then either add, subtract or compare the value of the numbers their thumbs landed on.
A shapes station gave students the opportunity to follow patterns or make-up their own shapes while aide Beth Buonocore taught students how the basic geometry they were using related to her hobby of quilting.
Aide Elaine Dickerson taught students about cross stitch and how it relates to measurements, estimation, algebra, geometry and fractions while they colored their own patterns in crayons.
An estimation station had students guessing the number of noodles held in a container and then counting to see how close they came.
Wacopse Federal Credit Union teamed with the school at a coin station where students had to take the coins provided for them and count them out to match amounts given to them.
A snack station was available requiring students to utilize measurements and recipe understanding to prepare their own food and drinks.
Students also attended a Hershey station where they used candy bars to learn about fractions with the help of the Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar Fractions Book by Jerry Pallotta.