Math Night at WFHA Equals Fun
More than 300 students and their families gathered at Westchester Fairfield Hebrew Academy recently for the school’s annual Math Night, a festive evening exhibiting just how much fun math can be.
This year’s theme, “Math Through The Ages,” encouraged attendees to explore the use of mathematical concepts in games, puzzles, patterns and artistic creations dating back to ancient times up through the modern day.
Each of the kindergarten through eighth grade classes created their own booths, featuring activities and games that used strategy, puzzles and codes.
Parents and children played classic games such as Othello, Battle Ship, Mastermind, Blokus, 3D Tic Tac Toe, and chess — using a life-size chessboard and pieces. They tried their hand at ancient puzzles, the popular modern day Sudoku, and the mind-boggler, Bridges of Koeningsburg,
Students also saw how math is used in art as they created origami and braided bracelets.
“I really didn’t think math could be this much fun,” said sixth-grader Kayla Sullivan, after explaining tessellations to the visitors to her class booth. Students decorated paper fish that could tessellate - a mathematical concept in which a shape is repeated over and over without any gaps or overlaps.
Visitors to the kindergarten booth helped celebrate the first 100 days of school. The kindergarten theme was “100 Can make a Difference.” In the weeks leading up to Math Night, the classes collected gently used books. Students counted and sorted the books in groups of 10, as well as made decorative bookmarks to be donated to area hospitals. In addition to the books, the school’s youngest children collected spare change leading up the event, which was sorted and grouped into hundreds during Math Night. The collected change was donated to groups supporting Israeli soldiers.