| Regardless of whether you call it a math fair, math | | | | 3. Bean bag toss - For a mathematical twist on the |
| carnival, school math night, or family math night, hosting | | | | bean bag toss, have parents toss bean bags at cards |
| one of these events at your school is a great way to | | | | on the floor. The cards have math problems on them, |
| get parents involved in their child's education. The basic | | | | and the students have to answer the math problem to |
| idea of a math fair is to have parents come with their | | | | get prizes. |
| child and participate together in various math activities. | | | | Shopping cart - Use plastic food items or other items |
| The math fair gives teachers the opportunity to show | | | | for students to purchase from a store station. They |
| parents what the students are learning. | | | | are given a limit on how much they can spend, and |
| There are a few details that need to be taken care of | | | | must select items from the store without going over |
| before the actual math fair: | | | | budget.o For one variation, you can give each student |
| 1. Prepare flyers or invitations for the students to take | | | | an envelope of play money. They will need to count |
| home. | | | | their money to determine their budget, then plan their |
| 2. Make sure you have at least one volunteer for each | | | | purchases accordingly. o Another version of this game |
| activity station, and try to have stations set up so | | | | would be to use a restaurant menu and let the |
| more than one parent-student combination can | | | | students figure out what to eat and drink based on |
| participate at a time. | | | | their budgets. o For students that are working on |
| 3. You may want to include handouts or worksheets | | | | percentages, you can even include sales tax on the |
| that students can take home, even a tip sheet for | | | | purchases. Students will need to estimate how much |
| parents to help their children learn the concepts | | | | they can spend before taxes to keep from going over |
| presented at that station. | | | | their budget. |
| 4. Decide whether you will have separate rooms or | | | | Encouraging Attendance |
| groups for different grade levels or whether you will | | | | Try some of the following ideas to increase |
| set up one room with activities that can be done by | | | | attendance: |
| everyone. | | | | 1. Serve pizza. Not only will students want to come for |
| Activities | | | | the free pizza, but also you can use the pizza cutting |
| Math fair activities should get the students and parents | | | | and serving to discuss fractions. Participants don't |
| involved, preferably working together, to solve math | | | | receive a slice of pizza, but one-tenth or one-eight of a |
| problems. Try to set up activities that will allow | | | | pizza. 2. Free homework passes. Give students who |
| students to complete more than one while the fair is | | | | attend and participate a free homework pass. The |
| going on. | | | | pass is good for one homework free night. 3. Publicize |
| 1. Scavenger hunt - A scavenger hunt can be an | | | | the event in the school newsletter or on school bulletin |
| activity that goes on throughout the math fair, or it can | | | | boards. Even the local newspaper is a good place for |
| be one station in the fair. Give students a list that | | | | placing information about the math fair. 4. Reward |
| involves measuring and solving problems. For example, | | | | math students by allowing them to create a station for |
| students can find something that weighs 10 grams or | | | | the math fair. The students will be excited about |
| measures 10 centimeters. Clues can involve math | | | | having their own station, so they will tell friends and |
| riddles, and the answer to the riddle is what the | | | | family...repeatedly. |
| students are trying to find. Encourage parents and | | | | The most important thing to remember is to have fun. |
| students to work as a team. | | | | The math fair is not about right and wrong answers. |
| 2. Probability games - This can be as simple as | | | | The object is to get the parents involved with their |
| predicting heads or tails for coin flips. Variations could | | | | children's schoolwork, to show parents what the |
| include the probability of finding matching socks in a | | | | children are doing, and to let the students have a good |
| suitcase or matching gloves in a box. | | | | time while doing math. |