After attending the Playful Mathematical Inquiry workshop a few years ago, I was very excited to attend Part 2 offered this year. Janice and Michelle did a wonderful job of both providing insight on mathematical teaching and learning to educators who have never been to their math workshop before, as well as expanding on big ideas for those who have. I enjoyed how they were able to share how their thinking had grown and changed from their last Saskatchewan math workshop, which helped me to build on my previous understandings. My big take away was that playful mathematical inquiry can and should be viewed as prolonged work with materials, ideas, and language that can be used to explore and understand how math plays an important part in our world.

The afternoon focused on encounters with different art materials. Michelle and Janice shared personal experiences of how educators can foster an environment in their classroom where students can explore and receive instruction on different types of art materials so that they are able to use them as a “language” to document their learning on other things by expressing what they know. I also enjoyed having time to explore different art materials and their affordances in the same way that my students would in the classroom.

- Hayley