World Math Day is held on the first Wednesday every March.

On this day students around the world compete with each other solving mental math problems. I love the idea of this worldly collaboration.

I introduced this celebration to a school district I worked with this year. We started by asking the PTA to help us sell Math T-shirts in their school color. The shirts focused on us being Mathletes. Staff members and students wore their shirts on World Math Day.

As far as the activities the students would be participating in, I wanted to focus less on mental math problems and more on logic ones. My goal was for the students to see that math is not just about numbers, expressions and/or equations. Math can be about collaboration, problem-solving, and perseverance. So I gathered one grade level at a time in the cafeteria and distributed logic problems for groups to solve.

You know the students are having a good time when they don’t want to leave. You know the staff is having a good time when they are trying to solve the tasks as well.

To end this celebration each student received a goody bag. Now, who doesn’t like a fun goody bag?  I ordered play and take games from http://www.familymathnight.com/ for every single student in the building. Everyone got a chance to bring something home. What I really like about these games is that they come with manipulatives which students often don’t have at home. I’m looking forward to seeing the different ways this district chooses to celebrate this day in the future.

Find a way to celebrate World Math Day either at school or at home!

Interested in celebrating more math holidays? Check out:

• Math Holidays To Celebrate
• On This Day In Math
• http://www.familymathnight.com/