SUMMIT – Bedtime Math, a national nonprofit that helps children love numbers, so they embrace and excel at math in real life, is partnering with the Wildwood School District to launch FUN factor, a series of hands-on standards-based math lessons that align with any elementary math curriculum.
According to a release, it will be supported by professional development workshops, co-developed by Bedtime Math and Columbia Teachers College, to help K-5 teachers implement the program effectively.
Since 2012, Bedtime Math has developed content that is proven to reduce math anxiety for children and improve math performance.
Its nightly word problems give students an extra three months of math skills in one school year, and its math games featured in its after school Crazy 8s Club reduce math anxiety to enable greater success in school.
“For seven years we’ve overhauled how kids think about math outside of the classroom,” stated Laura Overdeck, founder of Bedtime Math. “Fun Factor is the natural evolution of that work. By presenting math inside the classroom in a fun, hands-on way, we can stoke student engagement and serve different styles of learners. This will help frustrated students catch up and lay the foundation for greater math achievement. We’re excited to bring these innovative math experiences to the Wildwood School District.”
Fun Factor will offer a suite of hands-on activities, modeled after Bedtime Math’s popular Crazy 8s Club games, including Glow-in-the-Dark Geometry and Firefighter Training.
Each lesson is aligned to K-5 standards to allow teachers to select the content that best serves the range of their students’ needs. In parallel, Bedtime Math will lead in-person professional development sessions to show teachers how Fun Factor taps common-sense, research-proven practices.
“The Wildwood School District is constantly searching for engaging ways to teach our students math,” stated Josepha Penrose, supervisor of curriculum and instruction. “Bedtime Math has offered us that through their trainings and hands-on lessons with Fun Factor. Our K-5 teachers now have another tool to use as part of math centers that will enable our students to experience math in a whole new way.”
