Test Coming Up? Have a Math Party! (Free Resources Included)

(If you would like to run your own math party, HERE ARE ALL THE RESOURCES you will need, as well as instructions for printing and set up.)

In my last post, I vowed to keep things short and sweet, then proceeded to ramble on for 599 words. So this time I’m going to do my best to get to the point. Here goes…

I tried something a little different recently. As a way of practicing/reviewing for upcoming test on similar triangles and right triangle trigonometry, our class had a Math Party!

First and foremost, there was food! I’m not sure I could’ve called it a “party” without snacks of some sort. As student came into class, they were given a white board marker and a name tag containing the name of a famous mathematician and a number.

The first thing I had students do was research their mathematician, then speak to other students about what their mathematician accomplished. Then for the rest of the class students walked around and attempted to answer the problems posted around the classroom on the whiteboards, Wipebooks, and windows (yes, windows! Give it a try, students love it and there’s no mess). However, there was a catch! Each problem had a famous mathematician’s name where a number should have been, so students needed to seek out who in the room had that particular name tag in order to find the missing number so they could proceed in solving the problem.

I’m so happy with how this turned out! The room was abuzz with students working on problems, asking each other questions, talking about about famous mathematicians, and of course, eating lots of food! I can’t wait to try it again with my grade 12’s during our upcoming vectors unit.

If you’d like to run your own math party, please feel free to use/adapt the resources linked above. Thanks for reading.