After launching our district’s Math Play Space this spring at some school and public library events, we took part in our first big community event on August 19 at Richmond’s Garlic Festival. In its eleventh year, the Garlic Fest draws visitors from all over the Lower Mainland and has an active Kids Zone Area.

 

         

I arrived bright and early to set up our space and by 10am our tent area was filing up with families. I was thankful for the shifts volunteered by our math mentor teachers and teacher consultants. It was interesting to watch families interact with the materials – some parents and grandparents stayed back and watched their children play, others played with their children and other adults jumped in and played on their own. Parents had questions about the materials being used and some had questions about the BC math curriculum. I was able to provide them with our district brochure and hope to have it translated into multiple languages by our next community event.

Our tent was full throughout the day with the Kids Zone coordinator saying that we were the most visited area of the day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did change out some of the materials over the course of the event but the two most used materials were the tiling/tessellating turtles and the magnatiles.

 

I particularly loved watching the children who had made garlic crowns at a booth in the area playing with the materials!

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information on the Richmond School District’s Math Play Space, including upcoming events, please see HERE.

~Janice