Testing A 60-Minute Math Workshop For 9-11 Year Olds: What I’ve Learned (And I Need Your Feedback)
Last Wednesday, I was stacking crumpled paper napkins and leftover biscuit wrappers after my latest trial workshop when 10-year-old Jake hung back by the door. Jake’s the kid who hides his math workbook under his desk every day and tells anyone who asks he’s “terrible at numbers.” That afternoon, his team’s third paper bridge had just held 12 toy cars, two more than any other group. “That was actually fun,” he mumbled, kicking a loose tile by the door, before running out to catch his mum. That line stuck with me, because that’s exactly why I started building this 60-minute math workshop for Year 5 and 6 kids in the first place.
I teach upper primary at a small public school, and for the last couple of years I’ve watched more and more 9 to 11 year olds check out of math. By the time they hit Year 5, they’ve already picked up a label: I’m a math person, or I’m not. Worksheets and test prep have sucked all the curiosity out of it for a lot of them. I wanted to try something low-stakes that didn’t feel like extra school, so I carved out time after school to run small-group trial workshops for kids who’d said they don’t like math.
The flow I’ve landed on so far starts with 10 minutes of low-pressure warm up: we guess how many lemon lollies are in a glass jar, play a quick dice game where you add to reach a target number, no points, no winners, just talking. Then 25 minutes for the main hands-on task: last week it was building paper bridges that hold weight, the week before it was planning a budget for a class party, the week before that it was designing a mini garden bed that fits a 1 metre by 1 metre space. Then 15 minutes of group share, where every team talks through what they changed along the way, and 10 minutes to fill out a quick anonymous exit slip with one thing they liked and one thing that sucked. That adds up exactly to 60 minutes, which I’ve found is the sweet spot. I tried a 90-minute test run with my own 10-year-old’s scout group a few months back, and by the last 25 minutes half the kids were leaning against the wall checking their watches, no matter how interesting the activity was. 60 minutes is long enough to dig into a problem, short enough that no one gets burnt out before it ends.
I’ve been surprised by how many kids who struggle with regular math class shine here. Mia, who still needs extra help with long division, figured out that folding paper into triangular beams made her bridge stronger three minutes before any other kid in her group. She’d never had a chance to lead a math activity before, and by the end of the share she was standing up front drawing her design on the whiteboard for everyone. No grades, no wrong answers—if your bridge collapses, you just talk through why, that’s all the math you need. That’s the biggest thing I’ve gotten right so far, I think. I don’t split kids by ability, either. The kid who aces every times table test isn’t always the best at problem solving, and the kid who forgets how to divide is often great at spatial reasoning or budgeting. Mixing everyone up means they learn from each other, no one carries the “bad at math” label into the room.
That said, there’s a lot I’m still stuck on, which is why I’m reaching out for outside input. I’m not sure where the line is between letting kids struggle and letting them get so frustrated they give up. Two weeks ago, one group spent 20 minutes arguing about how to measure their garden bed and never got around to drawing the design. I hung back because I didn’t want to step in and give them the answer, but by the end they were all checked out and didn’t want to share. Was that my fault for not jumping in with a gentle starting prompt? Or would stepping in have taken away the problem-solving part that makes the workshop work?
I’m also not sure how to connect what we do here to the math kids do in regular class, without turning this into just another tutoring session. A few parents asked me after the first workshop if it would help their kid pass their fractions test next month. I told them that working through these open-ended problems builds the flexible thinking that makes fractions easier long-term, but I don’t know how to make that link clearer for parents and kids who are stressed about grades. I don’t want this to become extra homework, but I also don’t want parents to think it’s just playing with paper and lollies.
My own son, who’s 10 and in Year 5, came to the first trial. He told me after that the warm-up lolly jar guess was “babyish.” That’s another thing I’m torn on: I keep the warm-up low-stakes on purpose, to help kids relax before we start after a long day of school, but do I need to adjust it for older 11 year olds who think that kind of game is beneath them? And the group share at the end—half the quieter kids never say anything, even when I call on them gently. Would switching the last 10 minutes to individual written reflection be better, or would that take away the chance for kids to learn from each other’s mistakes?
I’ve run four trials now, with 28 kids total, and I’m getting ready to share the workshop model with other after-school programs and local primary schools next term. I’ve got a notebook full of scribbled notes from exit slips and parent chats, but I know I’m missing things that other people would see. If you’re a parent of a 9-11 year old, what would make you sign your kid up for a 60-minute after-school math workshop? What would turn you off? If you’re a teacher of Year 5 or 6, what’s the biggest issue you have with math engagement that you wish a workshop like this could fix? I don’t need to make something perfect. I just need to make something that works for kids who’ve already decided they don’t like math. Right now, kids like Jake leave saying it was actually fun, and that’s a good start. But I know it can be better.
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