Writing #4: Family Math Nights

FAMILY MATH NIGHT

Madison Stieber

Meghan Milarch 

Food Bingo!

Materials:

• Flashcards with drawn pictures of food 
• Flashcards with attributes to food that we read off 
• Different colored chips for each player (red and yellow, given by professor)
• Poster 

Procedure:

• Pass out materials 

• 16 flashcards with pictures of food
• Different colors of chips  

• Explain game 

• We arrange the cards like a 4x4 bingo board.
• We will let the players pick their favorite food or least favorite food for their “free space”.
• We describe the attributes of a food, and they place a chip on the card they think best fits the description.
• There are no right or wrong answers!
• They need to get four in a row (diagonal, horizontal, or vertical) to win.
• Although there are no right or wrong answers, we are allowed to ask them why they chose the food that they did and defend it. If they cannot think of a reason aside from getting a bingo, we will give them the opportunity to pick a different food.

16 Foods

• Cake 
• Pizza 
• Apples 
• Grapes
• Carrots 
• Broccoli
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Pickles
• Milk
• Cheese
• Bread
• Eggs
• Butter
• Cookies
• Tomato 

• We feel that this is an interesting and fun activity because it allows kids to be strategic and pick what answer to which question will allow them to get a bingo.
• They use math through mentally categorizing the food to fit our description.

Stories

#1: This took place on the first Family Math Night. This stood out to me in particular because when making the game, we chose rather basic attributes that we thought could apply to anyone. However, this instance showed me the importance of cultural differences.

A family of four came up to us wanting to play the game: a mom, a dad, and two brothers. The parents spoke Spanish to the children, and the kids spoke English to us. More than once, an attribute did not apply to the children, so we had to make one up or choose a new one. In particular, one of our attributes were, "What is something you would put on a hamburger?" We expected them to lay a chip on cheese, tomato, pickle, etc. Without question, the oldest boy placed his chip on eggs. When I asked him to defend it, he said it is what he gets from McDonald's. I glanced at his mom, and she said, "He means an egg mcmuffin." While I found it funny, it showed me how children make connections and in this case, associate American foods to what they have ate, even if they have not ate the thing itself. Obviously, we let him keep the answer because we really appreciated him making that connection and it was very clever.

#2: This is not necessarily a specific story, but more of a general observation. The first location was fun with the kids, but it was as if they were just going through the motions. All of the games were in one big room, staring at them right as they walked in, and I could understand if it was a little overwhelming. The second time, kids were very engaged. There was a nice flow of people with how this was set up and actual mathematical conversation and debating took place. Children thought of ways attributes could apply to food that I had not thought of. For example, a child was asked to put their chip on something you use for baking. She was looking for a bingo and put a chip on a tomato. I asked her what she meant by it, and she said, "You put tomatoes on pizza, and then you bake pizza. BINGO!" There were multiple cases of this, and the younger children were very proud of themselves when they got a bingo. Students also did not act as if their parents forced them to come; they genuinely seemed to want to play the games.

Conclusion

Fun: I thought the game was fun for the majority of kids. Younger kids enjoyed it and often did it once by themselves, and played again against an opponent. Older students enjoyed the sense of competition, whether they played with another student or one of us. I do think that this would be best for a younger classroom though, because a few older students I feel were not mathematically stimulated. They had fun, but the math was too simple for them to appreciate it.

Mathematical Thinking: I saw mathematical thinking when students were multitasking. To be specific, they were strategic as to how to get four in a row, while also trying to fit the attribute. I was surprised by how many students did not try to stretch the attribute just to win, but rather gave a solid defense to their answers. Some answers we had not even thought of ahead of time. I was also surprised as to how many students forgot that the goal was to get a bingo; some enjoyed just discussing their answers.

Takeaway: This entire experience was fun because we got to not only work with kids, but get an idea as to what they enjoy. From this, I can say that students do not always shy away from challenges and they appreciate competition. Our game was not originally a competition and it would have been very boring without it. In addition, I would include more of a variety of cultural food, so no one would feel left out and we could maybe extend students knowledge. Finally, if I were to use this for older grades, I would incorporate more cards. What I do love about this game, is that it is adaptable to many other subjects, such as our original plan to have equations on cards. 

Overall, this was a great experience with many takeaways that I can apply to my future classroom!