Daily activity suggestions for engaging families in maths.
Numeracy and maths take-home bags
Similar to a take-home reader, students take home one mathematics activity at the start of the week to complete with their family members. The numeracy and maths take-home bags are suitable for all age groups and designed to spark mathematical rich discoveries and conversations with family members.
The numeracy and maths take-home bags include the activity materials with accompanying checklist, instructions, the outline of the mathematical concept addressed in the activity, and a feedback form for a family member to complete and return to school by the end of the week. The activities may be puzzles, problem-solving tasks, games, fun investigations, etc.
Further reading
For further information, read Muir, T., (2016). Out of the Classroom, into the Home.
Teaching Children Mathematics, 22(8) 496-504.
Problem of the week
The whole school, year level or class, send home a problem each week for families and students to work on together. Feedback and sample solutions can be shared in the school newsletter. The problem of the week encourages engagement and allows families to see multiple approaches to solving problems.
Problem #1
Look at the calendar. Draw a square around 9 of the numbers. What do you notice? Prompts: If I tell you the top left number, can you tell me the bottom right number? If I tell you the middle number, what can you tell me? Extension: What if the figure can be any rectangle? A cross? What if we replace the calendar with a number grid?
Problem #2
Some people claim rolling a six is harder than rolling a two. Roll a die many times, collect and record your data. Make a convincing argument using your data and other ideas about the claim. Extension: Extend the situation to a 10-sided die or roll two dice and find the sum. Think of some claims and investigate.
Problem #3
Many graphs about the coronavirus show two graphs and talk about flattening the curve. Find some examples. If the area under the graph represents how many people become infected, work out a way to see if the two areas are the same or different.
Maths Wall
A maths wall is an area in your school where you can regularly present 2D or 3D displays of mathematics tasks and student work. The idea is to create a display area where mathematics for a year level or area or the whole school is taken outside the classroom and is on the show for the school community. Teachers may invite families to contribute their home mathematics discoveries or experiences to the maths wall.
Games
Playing games with family members is a fun and enjoyable way to explore mathematical concepts, strategies, engage in logical thought, and problem-solve. Games teach collaboration and help students and their families develop perseverance. Families who experience the games played in school at home with their children witness first-hand the utility of games as a vehicle for promoting mathematical thinking.
Families can play strategy games, such as, Connect 4, Junior Monopoly, Monopoly, Pass the Pigs, noughts and crosses, Mastermind, Guess Who, battleships, checkers, and chess, Mancala, card games (e.g., Set, Spot it) and dice games (e,g., Yahtzee). Families can make their own games, see
20 games for 5-8-year-olds or find games online.
For secondary student visit,
Secondary Interactive Games. Students can play online or make a version for home. Try Connect Three which uses two spinners with positive and negative numbers and a game board, players choose addition or subtraction and try to get three in a row and block their opponent.
You can find fabulous online games at
ABC games. Try Building Site, Photo Hunt, Spinners, Dice duels, Scatterplots, Graph Investigator, and many more.
You can find games developed by the indigenous peoples of North America at Games from the Aboriginal People of North America: Math Content
Maths at Home Letter
Families are encouraged to share their ideas and experience of engaging in mathematics outside the classroom with other families in the
Maths at Home Letter. Each month families forward anecdotal notes of their experiences to a volunteer who collates these experiences and ideas into a letter sent out to all families (Kliman, 1999).
Encourage families to share feedback on their interaction with the suggestions from the Birth to Level 10 Numeracy Guide The Numeracy at the Home page, which is designed especially for families.
Maths Club for Families
Maths Club for Families is a monthly group run for adults who seek to understand contemporary teaching of mathematics to better support their child at home. Topics for exploration are suggested by the group members. Open-ended and hands-on activities explored in the group are designed to build families' confidence and demystify mathematics.
Further reading
For further information, read:
Goos, M. (2004). Home, school and community partnerships to support children's numeracy.
Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom,
9(4), 18-20.
Muir, T. (2012). Numeracy at home: Involving parents in mathematics education.
International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, (25 January 2012), 1-13.
Family Maths Night
Family Maths Night is a whole school event typically run annually. Activities involve families and students working together on mathematical tasks.
Family Maths Night provides an exceptional opportunity to illustrate that mathematics is enjoyable, challenging, rewarding, and that collaboration is a powerful tool for increasing the likelihood of solving a task.
These events allow the school to show families first-hand what contemporary mathematics teaching and learning looks like so that families better understand how and why schooling has changed since they went to school. Families are welcome to ask questions about mathematics and mathematics teaching in a casual, relaxed environment.
Program ideas to consider are:
- invite a guest speaker for part of the session
- run a round-robin of activities where families make choices about the tasks they want to participate; puzzles
- student-initiated tasks
- maths games as prizes.
The greater the participation rates by staff, students, and families, the greater the success of the
Family Maths Night.
Family Maths Talks
Family Maths Talks offer a range of approaches to increasing communication about mathematics between schools and families, and within families.
Teacher initiated conversations
The teacher-initiated conversations are prompted by the teacher or school, stimulating students and families to share and explore mathematics beliefs and understandings together.
Some suggestions are:
- How would your child describe their mathematical capability? What are your child's strengths and limitations in mathematics?
- What beliefs about mathematics do you pass on to others around you? How would you help your child to develop positive attitudes towards mathematics?
- How would you describe your mathematical capability? What is one mathematical skill you wish you were better at? Why?
Student communication about a mathematical task or investigation to families
Encourage students to talk to family members about something they have been working on in maths class - an investigation, a problem-solving task, a big idea. Explaining helps families learn about what students are doing at school and methods used, as well as providing additional occasions for students to explain their thinking.
Student explanations about a mathematical procedure or concept to families
Teachers encourage students to explain to family members contemporary approaches to doing mathematics. This can promote discussion about different methods, the school way versus the ways family members do it. An emphasis for current school methods is on understanding why a method works as well as being able to use the method. For example, sharing differing methods of subtraction, or dividing fractions.
Data collection or problem-solving task or for students to explore with families
Teachers set home-based tasks that students explore with families. Data collection tasks may include: How much water is used each day in the home? How much rubbish is put in each bin? How long does it take to travel to school? Families work together to solve a problem within the home context. For example, check a household bill to make sure it is correct, or scale up a recipe to serve more people.
Family initiated conversations
Teachers and schools encourage families to look for authentic, everyday problems and work together to solve these. Once suggested, these ideas can be taken up by families at any time. For example, gardening, scheduling activities, woodwork, planning a journey, and shopping. When shopping, a child is asked to estimate the total cost of all groceries in the basket or trolley before arriving at the checkout. While in the car, especially on long-distance trips, a child is asked to calculate fuel usage to work out where or when it will be necessary to fill up next. The importance of mathematics in solving these everyday authentic problems should be made explicit.
Family challenges
Family conversation starters
Some suggestions for starting conversations within families are:
- Play a game. Notice and talk about strategies. Notice and talk about where maths is used.
- List how you use mathematics on a typical day.
- Name something you did today that did not involve maths.
- What is one thing your child is good at? Identify the mathematics in that action/activity.
- Ask your child to explain some maths they are doing at school and talk about the way that you did that same thing when you were at school.
- Complete the maths myths questions in the Birth to Level 10 Numeracy Guide together with your child.
- Discuss what you do when you are faced with a challenging problem, what do you do to solve it?