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‘March Math Madness’ enhances math skills
Written by Celeste Marsh
Thursday, 19 March 2009 01:00
The Darien Advocates for the Education of the Gifted has rolled out a month-long event to promote mathematics awareness at home and district wide in Darien’s elementary schools.Billed as “March Math Madness,” the program was developed with the school administration in response to the recommendations made by the Tri-State Consortium last year to get the community involved in math.
Students are being encouraged to play math games at home with parents, siblings and friends throughout the month of March. The games focus on developing logical thinking, spatial reasoning, math fact skills and critical problem-solving.
“The objective is to engage kids in math play,” said Karen Naughton, the district’s math science specialist. “Providing opportunities for children to manipulate numbers develops their number sense which is the foundation of mathematics.”
Students log onto the Darien school Web site at darienps.org and click on the “March Math Madness” link daily where they find a calendar of grade-appropriate links and games developed by Naughton and Luke Forshaw, the district’s technical specialist. The students track the amount of time they spend on the games on a weekly log which is turned into Darien Advocates for the Education of the Gifted each Friday.
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from parents about the links because they now have a place to go to find games and websites that are tried and true.” said co-president Mary Alptekin.
The organization has established a host of incentives for both the students and the schools by awarding prizes for participation. Every child who partakes will have his or her name entered into a drawing for a special prize and one student per class wins a prize weekly.
Culminating the month-long event, the organization plans to award each school that reaches its play-time goal with a basket of games for use at indoor recess.
In addition to sponsoring the program, Darien Advocates for the Education of the Gifted sponsored a night with Greg Tang, a children’s math book author and creator of math games, who addressed parents, teachers and administrators earlier this month about making every student a mathematician. The organization will also sponsor an in-service training day with Tang for teachers and administrators in the fall.
“We couldn’t be happier about providing this seminar to the teachers, given the fact that the district’s budget has been severely constricted this year,” said Alptekin.
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Darien Events
Darien Library invites teens 12 and up to “Skate Day” on Saturday, July 31, at 1, in the teen lounge.
Stop by and play Tony Hawk’s Ride on Wii. There will be tons of skateboard stickers for your board, helmet or yourself. Skateboards and longboards are welcome. Refreshments and snacks will be served.
Darien Town Links
A Better Chance: abcdarien.com
American Red Cross: dsredcross.org
Calvary Baptist Church of Darien: calvarybaptist.darien.org
Center for Hope: centerforhope.org
Child Guidance Center of Southern Connecticut: childguidancect.org
Children’s Council of Darien: ccd.darien.org
Community Fund of Darien: communityfunddarien.org
Darien Advocates for Education of the Gifted: daeg.org
Darien Antiques Show: darienantiquesshow.org
Darien Arts Center: arts.darien.org
Darien Boat Club: darienboatclub.org
Darien Book Aid: dba.darien.org
Darien Community Association: dca.darien.org
Darien Community Information Network: darien.org
Darien Continuing Education: dariencontinuinged.com
Darien EMS Post 53: post53.org
Darien Environmental Group: darienenvironmentalgroup.org
Darien Fathers’ Forum: fathersforum.darien.org
Darien Fire Department: darienfire.org
Darien High School Girls Swim Team: girlswim.darien.org
Darien Historical Society: historical.darien.org
Darien Junior Sailing Team: sail.darien.org
Darien Land Trust: darienlandtrust.org
Darien Library: darienlibrary.org
Darien Lions Club: darienctlions.org
Darien Little League: dybs.org
Darien Nature Center: dariennaturecenter.org
Darien Players: players.darien.org
Darien Post 6933 Veterans of Foreign Wars: angelfire.com/ct3/darienvfw
Darien Power Squadron: dps.darien.org
Darien Professionals Networking Group: darienprofessionals.com
Darien Public Schools: darienps.org
Darien Republican Town Committee: darienrtc.com
Darien Revitalization Initiative: darienmainstreet.org
Darien Sail & Power Squadron: dps.darien.org
Darien Senior Activities Center: dsac.darien.org
Darien Soccer Association: leagueathletics.com
Darien Technology & Community Foundation: darientechnologyfoundation.org
Darien Times: darientimes.com
Darien United Methodist Church: umcdarien.org
Darien Winter Club: darienwinterclub.org
Darien YMCA: darien-ymca.org
Darien Youth Baseball & Softball: dybs.org
Darien Youth Hockey Association: dyha.com
Darien Youth Lacrosse Association: dylax.com
Democratic Town Committee: dtc.darien.org
Depot, The: dariendepot.org
Fairfield County Football League: fairfieldcountyfootball.org
Family Centers: familycenters.org
First Church of Christ, Scientist: christiansciencect.org/darien
First Congregational Church of Darien: uccdarien.org
Friendly Connections: familycenters.org
ITP Foundation of Darien: itpfoundation.org
Kiwanis Club of Darien: darienkiwanis.org
League of Women Voters of Darien: lwv.darien.org
Middlesex Club: middlesexclub.org
Middlesex Genealogical Society: mgs.darien.org
New Life Christian Fellowship: nlcf.ws
Noroton Presbyterian Church: norotonchurch.org
Noroton Fire Department: norotonfd.org
Noroton Heights Fire Department: nhfd.us
Noroton Yacht Club: norotonyc.org
Obie Harrington-Howes Foundation: ohhf.org
Pear Tree Point School: ptpschool.org
Person-to-Person: p2p.darien.org
Republican Club of Darien: republicanclub.darien.org
Republican Town Committee: darienrtc.com
Rotary Club of Darien: rotary.darien.org
Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church: saintlukesdarien.org
Saint John’s R.C. Church: stjohndarien.com
Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church: stpaulsdarien.org
Saint Thomas More Church: stmdarienct.org
Senior Men’s Association: sma.darien.org
Talmadge Hill Community Church: thcchurch.org
Town of Darien: darienct.gov
YMCA Piranha Swim Team: piranhaswimming.org
Young Life of Darien/Rowayton: darien.younglife.org
YWCA of Darien-Norwalk: ywcadariennorwalk.org
Other Web Sites of Interest:
Connecticut General Assembly: cga.ct.gov
Connecticut State Government: ct.gov
Connecticut Rail Commuter Council: trainweb.org/ct/
Domestic Violence Crisis Center: dvccct.org
Fairfield County Chorale: fairfieldcountychorale.org
Friends of Autistic People: autisticadults.com
Jewish Family Service: ctjfs.org
Junior League of Stamford-Norwalk: jlsn.org
Family & Children’s Agency: familyandchildrensagency.org
Infoline: 211.org or infoline.org
Liberation Programs: liberationprograms.org
Norwalk Hospital: norwalkhosp.org
Norwalk River Rowing Association: norwalkrowing.org
Nursing & Home Care: visitingnurse.net
Pegasus Therapeutic Riding: pegasustr.org
Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE): scorenorwalk.org
Sexual Assault Crisis Center: sacec-ct.org
Stamford Hospital: stamhealth.org
Volunteer Center of Southwestern Fairfield County: ucanhelp.org
Norwalk Youth Symphony: norwalkyouthsymphony.org
U.S. Congressman Jim Himes: himes.house.gov
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd: dodd.senate.gov
U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman: lieberman.senate.gov
State Assemblywoman Terrie Wood: repterriewood.com
State Senator Andrew McDonald: senatedems.state.ct.us/McDonald
State Senator Robert Duff: senatedems.ct.gov/Duff
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