Northside Elementary kindergartener Zakiya Fortner said she loves math and numbers. When she tried to show how much, she stretched her arms as far as she could and said, “really big!”

She said her love for math got even bigger after learning more about grouping and finding patterns with numbers. 

Playing the princess in a story about math helped, too.

Zakiya, along with 18 other students and their parents from Northside and King elementary schools, attended “Let’s Read Math,” a workshop on Saturday at the Ann Arbor District Library's Traverwood Branch.

It was one of four workshops held throughout January and February designed to teach fundamental math skills to students in kindergarten through fourth grade. The American Association of University Women - Ann Arbor organized the series.

“The whole idea is to dispel math-phobia,” said Peggy Fisher, president of AAUW-Ann Arbor. “We want to show them math is fun.”

Each workshop revolves around a math-based children’s book. Saturday’s session centered on “The King’s Commissioners” by Aileen Friedman, a story about a king who is confused about the methods his royal advisors use to count the commissioners in his kingdom. His princess daughter helps him understand different ways to group numbers. Students stood to portray different roles while the story was read aloud to the group.

“I think this is fantastic,” said Tracey Schultz, Zakiya’s mother. “She gets up in the morning and I tell her its ‘Let’s Read Math’ today and she gets excited. She’s encouraged, and I think that’s outstanding.”

Students also completed activities showing how math is used in everyday life. One table had several different types of clocks — 12-hour and 24-hour, digital and manual — to show how time relies on math. Another table had measuring cups and other tools to show how math is used in cooking.

Workshop volunteers handed out charts with a grid numbered one to 100 and had the students, helped by their parents, find different patterns. They used colored breakfast cereal to mark the patterns on the sheet. Afterwards, they used the cereal to make necklaces, replicating patterns they had learned.

“I made mine in sevens,” Zakiya said, holding up her new Fruit Loop chain.

Robyn Robeson, AAUW member and organizer of Saturday’s workshop, said next year two different schools will have the chance to participate. She said the program was adapted from a program that AAUW Pennsylvania chapters have staged in the past.

“It started in Pennsylvania, but it’s going all over the country,” Robeson said. “What we realize in America is that our math skills are deteriorating at young ages and we, as AAUW, want to do whatever we can to help the kids get strong in math.”

Danny Shaw is an intern with the AnnArbor.com Community Team. Have a story idea? Email community@annarbor.com.