If an enthusiastic turnout of students and parents is any indication then Southdown Primary School’s Math Night 2018 was an overwhelming success.
Organized and coordinated by Southdown teachers Alyssa Scudieri and Valerie Murray, the evening was both instructional in nature and fun for everyone. Combining learning with a good time was the goal and Principal Scott Oshrin believes it was “mission accomplished.”
The two teachers worked hard to put in place what they felt would be a great lineup of activities. The duo is already planning next year’s event. “Together we came up with a parent survey, which we distributed at the end of the night to help make the event even more successful in 2019,” Ms. Scudieri said.
Mr. Oshrin threw his full weight beyond the evening and classroom teachers encouraged their students to participate in the initiative. Everyone was heartened with the turnout and the enthusiasm displayed by parents and their children.
“We would like to thank all of the Southdown families who came out and participated in our fun, math filled night,” Mrs. Scudieri said. “We would also like to thank all the teachers who assisted this year, including from kindergarten, Mrs. [Theresa] Duffy, Mrs. [Rose] Medina and Mrs. [Stephanie] Winzer; from first grade, Mrs. [Dana] Hartough and Mrs. [Diane] Reinesch; from second grade Mrs. [Dimaris] Ortega and Mrs. [Lauren] Wesnofske and from third grade, Mrs. [Meghan] Kenny and Ms. [Yanira] Ventura and some of Southdown’s special area teachers, including Ms. [Melody] Renick, Mrs. [Cindy] Tietjen, Mrs. [Shelley] Stockner, Mrs. [Sarah] Macaluso and Mrs. [Lynn] Hefele.”
Teachers planned engaging and fun learning centers aligned to the state’s math standards for students on each of the grade levels. Students loved every single one of the challenges they faced.
“Third grader’s multiplication skills were put to the test,” Mrs. Scudieri said. “Making haunted house fact families, as well as Halloween multiplication bingo. Third graders, and their families, also made some beautiful ‘city skylines’ by creating different multiplication arrays to look like buildings and represent an ‘array city.’”
Younger students practiced various math skills, including “making a ten,” adding, measuring and number sense through fun games created by the Southdown faculty members.
Students also had a lot of fun when they went to the gymnasium with Mrs. Hefele. They practiced skip counting and other math skills while they got up and move around.
Each of the evening’s participants received a fun-filled math goodie bag, with different math manipulatives to help reinforce their math skills outside of the classroom. Parents also left with a list of useful resources they can use and access at home to help their child grow their math skills outside of the classroom.
“We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to run math night this year. It was an awesome event with the whole Southdown community,” Ms. Scudieri said.
“It was so rewarding to see the smiling faces on the students, as they went to each exciting math related activity throughout the night,” Ms. Murray said.
