Ideas for planning a Numeracy or Mathematics Day:

• Hold a Mathematics games afternoon: Use games such as chess, draughts, snakes & ladders, Chinese checkers, bingo, umlabalaba, Monopoly, card games involving grouping of numbers, dice games using the 4 operations, beetle drives, probability games or any other games involving mathematics.

http://academic.sun.ac.za/mathed/AMESA/Challenge/

• Use the AMESA Challenge: The Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa (AMESA) provides a Mathematics Challenge for Grade 4 - 7 learners. Full details about the AMESA Challenge, including past papers, are available at http://www.amesa.org.za/Challenge on the web. To receive information about the Challenge, contact the organiser, Alwyn Olivier, at aio@sun.ac.za. The WCED will send a master copy of the AMESA Challenge 2007 paper to all primary schools at the beginning of the third term. A CD of past AMESA Challenge papers is available on order at R12 + postage from Edumedia at tel.no. 021 689 9536 or fax no. 021 685 7421 or e-mail address edumedia@pgwc.gov.za

• Run a sudoku competition: Learners could participate in class groups or school houses.

• Organise a Technology/Mathematics model building competition or display: Learners spend a day building models designed by themselves; or models and projects produced in class (e.g. during Technology lessons) could be displayed.

• Run a mathematics quiz: Learners could participate in a mental maths challenge or a problem-solving challenge.

• Use fun mathematics problems in class: Magic squares, etc. Books with ideas can be borrowed from EDULIS. Tel. no. 021 957 9618 or e-mail address edulis@pgwc.gov.za

• Organise library displays: Displays in the library highlighting mathematical formulas, inventions, etc.

• Encourage library use: Learners could use the library to research or investigate topics set by the teacher, e.g. questions based on Roman algebra, Egyptian algebra, Pythagoras, Pascal, Fibonacci or who did what on a particular day in the history of mathematics (learners could then develop a time-line).

• Set out a treasure hunt using a map with co-ordinates to find the treasure: Clues could be given as the solution of a mathematical problem.

• Invite parents and learners to a fun mathematics day: Activities could include card playing, darts, skittles with points, chess, deck quoits and throwing rings over numbered skittles, number and logic puzzles.

Ideas for planning a Mathematics Day

• Offer a fun mathematics afternoon or evening for learners, teachers and parents: Learners, teachers and parents could participate in an afternoon of fun mathematics activities. Parents could be invited to tell learners how they use mathematics in their everyday work.

• Run games and quizzes: Teachers could spend one lesson engaging learners in games like Maths 24, sudoku, etc. This could culminate in the fun mathematics afternoon where outstanding performance by learners could be rewarded with prizes.

• Arrange displays of mathematics posters and projects depicting the history of mathematics or the practical applications of mathematics etc.

• Participate in AMESA Mathematics Week activities during this period