This post is part of a series authored by local PTA leaders who received STEM + Families Mathnasium Math Night grants. They share practical advice and lessons learned from planning and hosting their events.
The Penngrove Elementary School community was elated to receive the news that we were awarded a 2018 National PTA STEM + Families Math Night Grant, sponsored by Mathnasium. The Friends of Penngrove PTA executive board enjoyed planning the event and loved seeing all the happy faces of our families during our event Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019.
Despite the huge winter rainstorm that evening, we thankfully had a record attendance. We had over 225 attendees and 25% of our students attended!
Our local Mathnasium transformed our school’s multipurpose room into 16 math stations plus a jumbo chess game, festive balloons and candy jar raffles. The executive board checked in guests and sold logo wear. School leadership helped with marketing the event via assemblies, announcements and encouraging teacher involvement.
The grant from National PTA was used to supply dinner and purchase enough raffle prizes for each student participant. The first 20 RSVPs received their choice of a ThinkFun game and then every 15 minutes we invited 10 more students to visit the prize table. They were able to select prizes from additional games, logo wear and pizza certificates. This was a highlight of the evening!
We decided to try three new things when planning for our STEM + Families Math Night.
- Requiring attendees to fill out a google RSVP form
- Providing a pizza and salad dinner
- Inviting the community to support us by volunteering to run stations
Creating the RSVP form allowed us to secure the proper amount of supplies, volunteers and prizes. It worked so well that we started using RSVP forms for other free PTA events. Providing dinner was a relief to parents and the students loved eating in the classrooms with their friends. By asking our school staff, student teachers and local high school students to volunteer to run the stations, the majority of adults in attendance were able to be guests and play math games with the students.
Everyone loved the event and we are planning on inviting Mathnasium back to Penngrove Elementary during the 2019-2020 school year for another successful collaboration. The #PennPanthers were so appreciative for the National PTA Grant—thank you for the opportunity to celebrate our community with a free, fun and educational evening!
Melissa Morelli is the Treasurer of Friends of Penngrove PTA.
Franchise Feature: Becky McDaniels (Mathnasium of Brandon, Fla.)
Over the last six years, Becky has co-hosted one to two Math Nights each month in her area. For her, the key elements for success are the relationships she builds with each school, creating open communication between her team and the PTAs.
Becky’s intention is to be a partner to her local PTAs, letting her take the pressure of the event—from set up to clean up—so the families can relax, and have a good time with their kids.
Her fundamental goal is for families to see that Math doesn’t have to be scary. There are simple things parents can do at home or anywhere with fun games allowing them to have conversations and experiences with their children around Math.
Becky’s pro-tips:
- Spread the word about the event. Send home fliers with students, emailing directly to parents, adding the event to the PTA’s website. Her Mathnasium location hosts a Facebook group which is shared out by the PTA as well.
- Provide food: This doesn’t have to be a cost! Becky has helped PTAs partner with other local business like Chik-fil-a to donate dinner to the event.
- Prep for event set-up: Becky has created a set-up map she shares with schools to make organizing the event space a breeze. She recommends two stations per game, dividing by grade, and having them side by side so parents with kids of different ages don’t have to split up.
Becky is a single-center owner and one of Mathnasium’s Math Night pioneers. Mathnasium used some key learnings from observing her practices to develop the official Math Night programing.
Take Action:
- Learn more about how your PTA can host a STEM + Families Math Night
- Find and contact your local Mathnasium
Disclosure: Mathnasium is a Proud National Sponsor of National PTA and a Founding Sponsor of National PTA’s STEM + Families initiative. The local PTA spotlighted in this blog was a winner of a 2018 – 2019 National PTA STEM + Families Math Grant, sponsored by Mathnasium. The author was not compensated for this blog post and the author’s opinions are his/her own.
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