I Tested A 60-Minute Math Workshop For Year 5/6 (Ages 9-11): I’m Looking For Your Feedback
Last Wednesday, I was wiping dry-erase marker off portable whiteboards an hour after the final bell, sweeping crumbs of cheddar goldfish into a dustpan, when Javi poked his head back in the classroom door. The 10-year-old Year 5 student had left his hoodie draped over the back of a chair, and he’d mentioned twice that morning that math was “just garbage” so I wasn’t expecting much when he wandered over. “That word problem thing wasn’t actually that bad,” he said, kicking a loose Lego brick I’d missed across the floor. “Can I make one about Minecraft next time?”
For the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a clear pattern with kids in this age group. By 9 or 10, most have already picked a side: you’re good at math, or you’re not. More often than not, that line gets drawn over word problems. Kids will read a paragraph, freeze up, skip it entirely on a test, or just add all the numbers together because they don’t know what else to do. Most extra help I’ve seen is just 10 more word problems on a worksheet, which makes the dread worse. So I decided to build a 60-minute after-school workshop focused entirely on untangling word problems—no extra homework, no grades, just practice that doesn’t feel like a punishment. I ran my first trial last week with 12 kids, and it went better than I expected in some ways, and totally off in others.
I structured the hour to move every 10 to 25 minutes, so no one was stuck sitting still too long. We started with 10 minutes of “Guess the Total,” where they had to estimate the combined cost of a canteen meat pie, a packet of lollies, and a bottle of juice. No calculators, just talking through how they got their guess. That got everyone talking right away, even the kids who slunk in with their hoods up. Next, 25 minutes of small group work, where I had them sort “junk info” vs “needed info” in problems before they even thought about adding or subtracting. Instead of telling them which numbers to use, they had to figure out why a problem mentions the main character likes soccer—it’s just extra junk someone threw in to trip them up. That’s the trick I don’t see enough people teach; most kids don’t realize word problems are made to be messy on purpose. Then 15 minutes of them making their own silly word problems for each other to solve. I saw Javi spend 10 minutes writing a 5-sentence problem about how many diamonds his friend lost in a Minecraft cave, and argue for 5 minutes after his friend got the answer wrong. That’s the most engagement I’ve seen from him all term. We wrapped up with 10 minutes of a quick exit check, just three emojis to pick from and one sentence if they wanted to write it.
By the end of the hour, though, I had a list of notes scribbled in the margin of my lesson plan that was longer than the lesson plan itself. First, I lumped all kids together, regardless of why they were there. Half the kids came because their classroom teacher flagged they needed extra support with basic word problems. The other half came because their parents asked for extension—they get the basics right, but want practice with harder multi-step problems to prepare for high school next year. The advanced kids finished the sorting activity 15 minutes early, and just sat drawing or scrolling their watches while the other groups finished. Lila, an 11-year-old Year 6 student, told me on the way out that “most of this was stuff I learned two years ago,” which was totally fair. I also forgot to build in a snack break. It’s right after school, kids haven’t eaten since lunch, and I only had a bag of goldfish to pass around. Three parents emailed me after saying their kid got home starving and cranky, which I should have seen coming. And even with switching activities every so often, two different kids checked their watches four times in the last 15 minutes. Sixty minutes straight after a full day of school feels longer than it looks on paper.
I’ve gone back and forth on what to adjust before the next trial next week, and that’s why I’m reaching out for feedback. Right now I’m weighing three big changes, and I want input from parents and other teachers who actually deal with this age group every day. First, should I split the 60-minute session into two separate strands—one for kids needing extra support, and one for kids wanting extension? I can get a parent helper to run the second small group, so size stays small around 6 kids each. But I’m worried kids will feel like they’re being labeled as “bad at math” if they’re put in the support group. Would you mind that as a parent? Is there a way to frame it by interest instead of skill that doesn’t feel awkward? Second, is 60 minutes too long? I can cut it down to 50 minutes, and move the 10-minute warm-up activity to a quick online check-in kids do the night before. It would mean we get straight to small group work, end 10 minutes earlier, and leave time for a 5-minute snack break mid-session. But I don’t want to add an extra thing for parents or kids to remember to do before the workshop. Is a 10-minute no-grades pre-workshop activity too much to ask? Third, what do you actually want out of a workshop like this? I built it to help kids score better on tests, but a couple of parents told me they just want their kid to stop saying they hate math before they get to high school. I was thinking of adding 5 minutes at the end of each workshop for one quick, low-effort trick parents can use at dinner time—like asking your kid to spot the junk info in a quick grocery math question, instead of quizzing them on the right answer. Would that be helpful, or just more work on top of a busy night?
I hung Javi’s hoodie by the door, and I’ve got his Minecraft problem idea scribbled in my notebook, right next to Lila’s note about needing harder work. The next trial is full, with 18 kids signed up, and I don’t need to get everything perfect the first time. But I want this workshop to work for more than just the middle of the group—for the kid who thinks math is garbage, and the kid who’s ready for more challenge than they get in the regular classroom. If you’ve got a 9- to 11-year-old, or teach this age group, I’d love to hear what you think. What’s the one thing you wish more math workshops did that they don’t? What’s the biggest pain point with after-school sessions for this age? Nothing’s set in stone yet, and all the feedback helps.
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