Families, students enjoy Family Math Day at Moscone Elementary School

Students participate in Family Math Day at Moscone Elementary School.

By Mark Sweeny, Moscone Elementary School

Math anxiety is contagious. It afflicts many students each year and teachers work hard to discover new and interesting ways of abating this contagion. The staff of George Moscone Elementary School implemented a painless treatment for all those that either enjoy math, fear math or are somewhere in between. They held a Family Math Day.

The purpose of Family Math Day is to help students overcome math anxiety by creating interesting displays to spark their interest in math while having adults available to help them when they get stuck.

This was the second Family Math Day held at Moscone School. On January 26, more than 500 students and families entered the multipurpose room which was transformed into a math themed carnival. Students played games targeting common core standards including place value, money, estimation, time, counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and word problems.

Students participate in Family Math Day at Moscone Elementary School.

Students also share the importance of math by contributing to the Math Wall of Fame. Myank, a fifth grader, wrote “Math is important to me because it make me smarter, so I can move on to middle school.” Denise, a fourth grader wrote, “Math is important so people can’t scam you” while Amna, a third grader, wrote “Math is important because it helps me learn more.”

Teachers played games based on the mathematical concepts described in the SFUSD core curriculum. According to data driven assessments, teachers provide families with ideas as to how they can develop their children's math skills at home. Family Math Day helps family learn about math developmental activities while serving as a bridge to connect the community to its school.

Students participate in Family Math Day at Moscone Elementary School.

This event is coordinated by Moscone’s Parent Club and the Positive School Climate and Events Committee under the direction of Principal Valerie Hoshino. It is a cooperative effort between families, staff members and community volunteers.

Families expressed their appreciation by posting notes of gratitude in the multipurpose room. "We've never seen such an event as large as this as Moscone," one sentiment read. "This event motivates everyone. To see teachers and staff working with our kids, it's marvelous."

Go here to learn more about math education in SFUSD.