Proudly wearing paper crowns that say Math Queen, students pose under giant “Math” balloons.

When many people think of math, they don’t think of fun, and they don’t imagine a math party on a Saturday morning. But that’s exactly what we did. The room was full of joyous laughter and hugs as we played math games in each other’s company.

On Saturday, April 13th, students, parents, siblings, and friends sat around a table rolling dice and multiplying the factors, gaining points and hoping to win their own crown. The event featured ten math games, difficulty ranging from addition, to long division, to fractions and order of operations. Families competed as well as supported each other, and took home the games at the end of the event. Students proudly boasted at school on Monday that they played with other family members that evening.

Research has shown that engaging families in math education—bridging the gap between school and home—is critical for refugee students to develop positive math identities, to foster the belief they are capable of taking on math challenges, and that math is for them.

At GVP, we are proud to have students and faculty that love math. While of American culture teaches girls especially to fear math and the hard sciences, many of our students love math and dream of STEM careers. While every math class cannot be as exciting as our Family Math Day, in Ms. Caroline and Ms. Linda’s classes, we love and celebrate math year-round.