Dozens of students across every grade level and their parents turned out for Flower Hill Primary School’s Family Math Night earlier this week.
The evening was both educational and fun. Many faculty members were also on hand to help make the activities more understandable and meaningful.
“We had our mathematicians of all ages out on Monday night,” Flower Hill Principal Lucia Laguarda said. “The Flower Hill gymnasium was set up with several math activities and games that students got to practice with their families. All of the shared activities are things that families can do at home. Our math RTI teacher, Lauren Soskil also planned activities that exposed the new Math movement mats she was able to purchase through our wonderful PTA. Kids were challenged to practice math fluency while hopping or dancing along the mats. I noticed first graders multiplying without even recognizing that this was a new operation for them. Everyone enjoyed Family Math Night at Flower Hill.”
Ms. Soskil is in her first year as Flower Hill’s math teacher. While she had heard that previous math evenings utilized classroom stations that participants rotated through, change was in the air earlier this week. “I wanted to have everyone together in the gym this year to have a more united math night,” she said. “I think it was a great idea because students got to learn with one another, no matter what grade they are in.”
Ms. Soskil created stations around the gym, including ones that featured estimation activities, Google Chromebooks, math games, card games, tangrams, scavenger hunt, “fortune tellers” and “math and movement.”
“We were lucky enough to have two math and movement mats that allowed students to skip count, multiply and divide, regardless of their age,” Ms. Soskil said. “This is such a wonderful way to learn the beginning of multiplication, as well as getting students active and their brains activated. I had some wonderful help from teachers in the school that helped the night run smoothly, as well as our principal, Ms. Laguarda, and elementary math director Marybeth Robinette. I had a blast planning and carrying out my first math night and I can’t wait for next year’s.”
Ms. Soskil earned an undergraduate degree in elementary education at SUNY Cortland in 2013 and a master’s degree at CUNY-Queens College in 2017. She has been teaching full-time in the district since September 2017.
