Walk by Kari Heppner’s fourth-grade classroom after school on Mondays, and you probably think her students are having a party to kick off the week. You’ll hear excitement, laughter, and most importantly, learning.
Each Monday, a group of students stay after class to take part in a grant-funded program called Crazy 8’s. “Crazy 8’s is an after-school math club where the students build stuff, run, jump, make music, and we make a mess,” said Heppner. “During the eight sessions, they’ll do mischief-making activities and take things home with them. We do the sessions on Monday for about an hour. They come in and have an activity to do that deals with math or science. Of the many activities we do, one of the favorites is glowsticks. With the glowsticks, they get to build a city out of polyhedrons. One of the polyhedrons they enjoyed making the most was the dodecahedron that has 12 faces, and you join those together.”
This week the students played the Crazy 8’s game working on their multiples. “It was a big game board,” said Heppner. “And what you had to do was each team got four cars with two kids on a team. So, again having to work cooperatively. They have to figure out how they can get to the finish line dealing with multiples of eight, prime, and composite numbers. So, if they land on a number that is a composite, they get to take another car out. If they rolled a five and they are on 30, five can go into 30, so they’d get to take another car out.”
Heppner said the program helps the students become problem solvers, not problem makers. “That’s where we have to keep challenging these students,” said Heppner. “They need to be aware that they need to be problem solvers, not problem makers. That’s what we’re making out of our kids is that they can solve problems. All of our students are great mathematicians. We just have to open their minds and make them aware that there is an answer to all the problems out there. We have to be willing to be challenged and know that mistakes are going to happen, and mistakes are fun. Just like Crazy 8’s is messy, and it’s crazy, life is messy and crazy. But let’s have fun with it, and let’s create lots of different solutions and work together.”
For more on the Crazy 8’s program, listen to Focus on Education Saturday at 8:35 a.m.
