Mathfest Across MFNSS
Mathfest took off this spring as the MFNSS Numeracy team coordinated with each of the 12 schools' Math leads to host a fun and successful event for all students. The Mathfests are annual events held at each school, with the math lead in each school taking the reins in coordinating their events. Activities of the day include a rotation of activities to take part in. Activities all schools enjoyed include Slido and Kahoot quizzes, Lu Playground, and some math games led by the Numeracy team. This year activities were assisted by the Early Learning Facilitator, Education Tech Facilitator, Assessment facilitator, and Planetarium teachings with the Science Facilitator.
Math leads in each school also arranged unique activities which may have included star blanket making, land-based activities like archery, obstacle courses and tug of war.
In Keeseekowenin, students fused creative design and geometry to create their star patterns fit for a star blanket. Math Lead Jenny expressed her intent to include indigenous culture in teaching all subjects, and did not hold back on including Anishinaabe culture in numeracy education. She cited previous year’s Mathfest activities with 2D and 3D scavenger hunts had an indigenous aspect to the search items as well.
In Ginew school, Math Lead Amanda reflected on engagement in class since the introduction of Mathfest, noting that in the first year, it was challenging to get students hyped for the event, but have since warmed up to and have come to enjoy Mathfest. Amanda noted the improved students’ engagement with each other and numeracy as a whole observing that it created a sense of community, “I think making it fun and engaging in a game, rather than paper and pen keeps them engaged and I have some teachers that have said it has helped their classroom when it comes to the math and keeping them engaged.”
Each activity is infused with numeracy, whether it's solving an equation, counting, or touching on subjects like geometry. The events aim to create an encouraging environment to turn the challenges of math into fun.
