Washington Week of Math
Grades K-8
May 22-28, 2023
https://www.mindresearch.org/washington-week-math-2023 Link goes live 5/22/2023
My students loved the Washington Week of Math activities. I could hardly pull them away and many spent time at home with their families working on the activities. The activities were engaging and included differentiation, so ALL learners were engaged and challenged appropriately. The tech part went smoothly – no passwords or usernames required! I found it a valuable use of class time and am excited to participate again.
~ Amanda B. 4th grade, Ruth Livingston Elementary Pasco, WA
What if you could tap into your students sense of adventure while at the same time inspiring deep mathematical thinking? Let's try something different.
Imagine using equations to crack a hidden code with turtles in ancient China, herding your own cattle on the African savanna, and time traveling back to the age of the dinosaurs—all while using mathematics throughout.
Math is everywhere, in everything, and for everyone. This central premise sparked the idea to bring math, culture, and creative problem solving to families through the Washington State Math Council (WSMC) and MIND Research Institute's Washington Week of Math, May 22-28, 2023.
WSMC has partnered with MIND Research for a second year to provide students (K-8) and their families access to the Washington Week of Math – an online set of games and stories that aims to change how math is experienced.
My 4th Graders had a blast doing the activities in the 2022 Washington Week of Math! It was a terrific time to do some fun and engaging activities after the vigorous rounds of state and district testing. I teach three blocks of math each day and we rotate our students through those groups in chunks of about 22. In each of the blocks, the kids decided to have an ACHI tournament, so we made brackets on the board and spent a couple days doing it! A couple of my students did not think they would be very good at it because they did not feel like they were strong math students. I convinced them that they could work as a team against other players and still participate. They ended up winning the whole thing! My kids had their eyes opened to new ways of being "good at math" and that it can and does look different than they sometimes experience in a traditional math class setting. Many of my students played with families at home and shared some of the story book pieces with younger siblings. I am looking forward to having more of our elementary classrooms participate in it this year and excited to be partnering with MIND Research again! Rachel M. 4th Grade, Finley Elementary, Kennewick, WA
You can visit the website, starting May 22. Spread the word, build excitement, and enjoy some math time yourselves. If you want, use the attached flyers. Post it on your school website, share it in morning announcements, or send it directly to your families (I’ve attached some sample messages for you).
The site hosts free stories, games, and activities in English and Spanish for families with students in K-8. You can play games in the classroom if you like, and please encourage families to participate and play at home.
There is a form to log the number of minutes spent on the games each day – we are aiming for a goal of 500,000 minutes!
We would be pleased to have you join us this year and be part of this exciting week of math – as you can tell from the stories from Amanda and Rachel this can be a great way to instill the excitement and beauty of math for your students. Please help us remind families to play and make sure that WSMC meets our goal.