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Watson hosts math night with dad
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The “Ship Wreck” activity asked parents to push their kindergarteners on scooters and avoid running into obstacles. Ray McNally (standing) pushed around his daughter, Raegan, like a pro.
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Each kindergarten classroom offered partnered math games for guests to play. Todd Sagesta (left), Riley Sagesta, Bryan Rusu, and Mason Rusu decided to play together during the math event.
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Parents and kindergartners were welcome to scope out math games and websites in Watson’s computer lab. Dads Ron Lewis (left, standing) and Boisseau Harris looked over the browsing of their respective Watson students, Joseph Greer (left, sitting) and Nadia Simms.
By SARAH FOOR
Usually, math problems happen on a sheet of paper. However, for the last 20 years, Watson Elementary has made math come alive with its Kindergarten Math Night with Dad.
On April 7, Watson kindergartners invited dads, uncles, or any special guests to their school to play games, complete physical activities and learn about online resources for math.
Kindergarten teacher Debbie Baranski oversaw the activities in the Watson gym during the math night, which included shooting basketballs, cornhole and long jump that all utilized math skills.
“I think that parents love to see how their kids interact with their friends and I know they love to be involved,” Baranski observed. “And I think our students love to see their parents at school, being goofy with them in our math activities. They get to see that their parents are still kids at heart.”
Beyond the gym, technology teacher Carli Cramer showed families a selection of websites and online games for their kids to use. Each kindergarten classroom organized partner math activities that reinforced kindergarten math skills, including recognizing numbers, patterns, and counting.
Teacher Debbie Calcagni has been a longtime planner of the math night.
“Our hope for the night is to reinforce math skills for the kids, and to show parents that they can do these very same kinds of activities at home. Math is everywhere and math is important,” Calcagni shared.