The National Football League's championship game, the Super Bowl, is usually played in February. This is an opportunity to get your class involved with a fun math activity. Ask students to research the two teams and determine the mean, median, mode and range of ages of the players. Explain that they find the mean number by adding all the ages and dividing by the number of player on the team. The median is established by listing the ages in ascending order and finding the age that is the middle number. The mode is the figure listed most frequently. The range is the difference between the highest and lowest number. Ask the class what trends they discovered through this activity and make a comparison of the two teams.
February is Black History Month and American Heart Month. Ask students to research the achievements and accomplishments of a noteworthy African-American. Each member of the class will then make a presentation on the man or women he selected.
Focus on American Heart Month in your classroom by discussing the importance of exercise and nutrition. Explain that aerobics is continuous exercise that makes the heart work harder, according to the American Heart Association. Ask everyone to draw his favorite non-aerobic activity on one side of a piece of paper and his favorite aerobic activity on the other side.
The third Monday of February is the federal holiday, Presidents' Day. While It was originally established to honor George Washington's birthday on February 20th. President Nixon proclaimed it as a celebration of all past presidents. Ask which president appears on the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and the half-dollar, then ask the students to investigate the most significant achievements of each of these past presidents.
On February 14th, Valentine's Day, give every box a box of multi-colored candy hearts. Ask them to count the the number of hearts in each color and turn the number into a fraction based on the total number of pieces in the box. By dividing the denominator into the numerator they will determine percentage of each color in the box. After the percentages are found, each student makes a pie chart showing the colors represented in his candy box.