Kids Find There’s Strength in Numbers

Sometimes students in Kathy Lawrence’s fifth-grade class at Eastshore Elementary School give her that “oh no, not again” look when she tells them it’s time for a math lesson.

But Lawrence didn’t get that response from them Wednesday, as parents and teachers brought the subject to life during the school’s first Right to Math Day.

In lieu of regular math lessons, students in kindergarten through sixth grade participated in games and activities to teach them that math, though sometimes a tedious and boring subject, can be fun too. Rather than solving arithmetic problems on paper, they measured the perimeters of the basketball and handball courts on the school playground, counted play money and “guesstimated” how many candy hearts filled a glass jar.

“A lot of activities enhance learning, but it’s important we make sure they are enjoyable to the children,” Lawrence said.

In her class, students spent the morning making geometric designs on a table with plastic figures.

“We use math every day for doing problems, using a calculator and finding answers,” Sarah Jajosky, 11, of Irvine said. “You use it for cooking to measure and when you go to the store to pay for something.”

“You can use it in art if you use rulers to make something,” fourth-grader Roni Yadlin, 9, added.

In the multipurpose room, each of the school’s nearly 500 students got a chance to mark their height on a giant poster that read, “How Do U Measure Up.” They signed their names on the mark so their peers could determine who is the tallest and shortest in their classes.

Principal Susanne Wiegand said the activities are aimed at teaching children how to use math in real-life situations because as they get older they will need to have the knowledge to handle money and determine measurements, for example, when they cook a recipe or fill up a gas tank.

For years, the school has held a “Right to Read Day,” an event where children can share their favorite books and parents can volunteer to read them. On this day, some parents and students have been known to wear pajamas and pretend it’s bedtime to set an ambience for storytelling.

Adding a day to celebrate math was a recent decision made by the school’s faculty.

“It just seemed it was a natural progression,” said Shelley Naramore, the third- and fourth-grade teacher who proposed the idea to her colleagues at a January staff meeting.

“We want them to see math is not just numbers and it’s more than just adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. It’s practical application.”