The annual Family Math Day at Qatar Academy is turning into a tradition, an anticipated day in the Primary School where students from pre-3 all the way to Grade 5 welcome their parents to their classrooms to work on age-appropriate math activities prepared by their teachers.
“Teachers chose activities that the students are familiar with and are based on what the students are currently using in school,” PYP Coordinator Colette McWilliams said. “This way, parents are provided with authentic opportunities to help their children.”
The activities are “fun and engaging” as what math is ought to be, McWilliams adds. Through the Primary Years Programme (PYP) framework, the subject is taught using a wide variety of strategies and resources that help students with their math proficiency. In Qatar Academy specifically, technology is immensely integrated in the school’s daily lessons. Through this, parents are provided with ideas to help their children with math at home.
Samah Ibrahim Ahmed, mother of Grade 3C student Lojain Osama Ahmed, appreciates this most of all. “It is a nice and helpful way to know about my child’s progress in math and to aid her and share my knowledge with her,” she says while working on an activity called ‘multidice tens’.
Lojain shares how she enjoys multiplication but sometimes finds division a challenge.
Her mother agrees but points out how she was able to finish the activity without much of her help. “I observe how she is mastering her lessons. Sometimes I teach and help her but mostly she understands math problems through constant practice.”
Ahmed’s observation is but one of the many things the event strives to achieve. “Through the Family Math Day, parents have a chance to see what happens in their child’s classroom each day, observe the math learning that takes place and get ideas to help them with math at home in a hands-on and interactive manner,” McWilliams said.
The Peninsula
