Want to start Math Monday at your school? Sign up below. We’ll send you your free Math Monday starter kit, with everything you need to know to start your own program, including game recommendations.
Math Monday in schools
Math Monday is a weekly drop-in lunchtime activity where students of all ages can get hands on with math games, puzzles and manipulatives that help build their math skills.
Math Monday is a 100% volunteer-run activity that relies on the participation and financial support of parents and the PTA. Math Monday is open to students in grades K-5 of all abilities. At Math Monday, students have the opportunity to play physical (never screen-based) mathematical board games and puzzles. Unlike competitive math clubs, Math Monday is intended to reach all students at their own pace and is meant to complement monthly events like Math Circles and Family Math Night.
Why start one at your school?
For schools — Math Monday is a convenient, inexpensive, and flexible way to improve student math performance, and promote student and parent interest in math, without burdening teachers with more work. Because it is run by parents, it’s a great way for your PTA to support math, and give parents a way to participate in making math better for their kids.
For parents — help your kids stay interested in math, volunteer to improve math for all students at your school, and bring home ideas for creating a math-positive culture at home.
For kids — have fun with your friends playing games and solving puzzles, and find the fun in math.
For math education champions — join a national movement to bring math joy to all people, especially for girls and underserved groups.
What do I need?
Time and place—we recommend weekly sessions during lunch in a large space. A library, auditorium or an empty classroom works well. Having it at lunch means all kids have the opportunity to attend. Additionally, it offers many children an alternative to playing sports or other playground activities and instead provides a fun, creative way to spend their lunchtime.
Support—Get the support of your principal, school administration, teachers and PTA by presenting the idea and building support.
Games—Go to mathmonday.net for game recommendations, Amazon links, step-by-step instructions and other resources.
Volunteers—parent support is the lifeblood of this program! It is critical to identify at least one parent champion who can run and manage the program, build support and enlist other parent volunteers.
Replays of Math Monday Live sessions
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Math Monday offered live sessions demonstrating activities students and parents could play with together at home. You can view replays of these sessions here.
Nim
Now that schools have closed, many of us are finding ourselves suddenly homeschooling. So I’ve decided to continue Math Monday as an online program in Zoom, every Monday at noon. This will be a program for parents and kids to attend together, and it will include activities for all ages, grades K-12. For kids this […]
Achi
Math Monday Recap: Achi Here are the followup resources from yesterday’s Math Monday. SLIDES. Here’s are the slides in Google slide format. Feel free to use or copy them. REPLAY. Here’s the video replay of this week’s session Next Math Monday: String Figures In next week’s Math Monday we will be making mathematical string […]
Counting Patterns
Last Math Monday: Counting Patterns This last Monday we played games that involve making and counting patterns, using pennies and other objects around the house. It sounds simple, but it’s an important and richly creative activity that many teachers repeat daily as a warmup (look up “counting collections” for details). And it’s a fun thing […]
Wolves and Sheep
Last Math Monday: Wolves & Sheep This last Monday guest host Spencer Bowen, who leads the San Francisco math circles, led us in a classic mathematical puzzle called Wolves & Sheep. Solving this puzzle is well within the reach of all children (and even adults), and requires a willingness to keep trying things until […]
The Math: Topology
The Math: topology Mobius strips are studied in an area of math called topology, sometimes called “rubber sheet geometry”, which studies properties of strings and surfaces that are allowed to bend and stretch, but not break or pass through itself. Mathematicians joke that a topologist can’t tell the difference between a donut and a coffee […]
Sign up for Math Monday!
Thanks for signing up for Math Monday — the place for kids to stretch your brain with math games. Every Monday we email you a page of math puzzles ranging from Small and Medium, to Large and Xtra Tricky. Email us your answers, and enter a monthly drawing for a Math Monday t-shirt.