Family Math Nights | The Robertson Program | Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Hosting a Family Math Night at your school is an opportunity to build and strengthen positive relationships among home, school and community. It’s an opportunity to see how math is an inclusive, playful, engaging and accessible endeavour.

A great example of this can be seen in our collaboration with the Rainy River District School Board (RRDSB) and the First Nation communities it serves. Family Math Nights were designed collaboratively with indigenous instructional leaders, First Nation educational counsellors, school board numeracy facilitators and the Robertson Program/Jackman ICS/OISE team.

First Nation community members and RRDSB educators developed activities – such as canoe symmetry, tangram clan animals, wigwam construction, exploring number patterns through Metis jigging – that raise awareness to geometry and measurement concepts in local cultural practices. School board numeracy facilitators and the OISE team also offered activities that reflect current spatial thinking research.

Activities that celebrate math and family!

Beading and Graphing

A woman and a young girl sit at a table sorting colorful beads.

For students to sort, classify, and display a variety of concrete objects, collect data, begin to read and describe displays of data, and begin to explore the concept of probability in everyday contexts.

Code Breakers: Ojibwe Syllabics

Two women work together, pointing at a paper on a table.

Learn code while using directional language to create Ojibwe syllabics that spell a secret Ojibwe word!

Cookie Sheet Symmetry

A woman watches a young boy play with colorful pattern blocks at a table.

For students to describe, sort, classify, and compare two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures, and describe the location and movement of objects through investigation.

Mandala

Students design and construct a Mandala, while learning about its rich history, to develop numeric pattern skills.

Ojibwe Probability Stick Game

Two children play a game with orange sticks and red and yellow chips on a classroom floor.

Learn about probability by guessing how many sticks will remain upright when dropped.

Tangram Clan Animals

A child shows a paper art project to an adult at a craft table.

Use tangram manipulative pieces to complete a puzzle that creates an image of a clan animal.

Unifix Counting Towers

Students get their minds and hands engaged with numeracy while making Unifix Towers.

Watch math come to life at Family Math Nights held with our partners!

Learn more about family math nights

This is OISE’s Inclusive Schools project document, Deepening Inclusive and Community-Engaged Education in Three Schools: A Teacher’s Resource. Dr. Bev Caswell, along with Grace LaRocque, contributed the following article: Creating a Student-Led Multicultural Math Night to Draw Crowds.

The article provides insight on how Bev and Grace worked with teachers and students at Flemington Public School to design a student-led Family Math Night for the community. There are outlines for activities, an overview of the important roles that school community members should play, and a timeline for how you may want to plan and implement a Family Math Night in your school community.

Deepening Inclusive and Community-Engaged Education in Three Schools: A Teacher’s Resource project coverpage.