The gym at Broad Street Elementary was transformed into a math fair of monster-sized proportions Thursday evening.

More than 300 parents and elementary students registered for the monster math theme night, which was arranged by the Dunbar Center after school program, the Broad Street staff and student teachers.

The after school program and the school had done parent nights separately before, but got more than double the turnout by combining their resources.

“It’s a little more of a captive audience,” said William Chwalik, principal at Broad Street. “We’re looking forward to this on more of a regular basis ... We’d love to do it every other month.”

The parent nights have proven to be an effective way to engage families with younger children. Students from kindergarten through sixth grade were all represented at Thursday’s event.

“It’s nice to see the families get together and seeing families wanting to get involved,” said Deb Freedline, as her daughter, Isabella, played a hopscotchlike math game nearby.

The fast finders game she was playing was among about a dozen activities at the family-friendly event. At this game, numbers were written on pictures of monsters and were spread out on the floor. Teachers would shout out math problems, and students found the number that was the answer and jumped to it.

“We have to jump on it before another person does,” said Isabella, 9, a fourth grader.

Other activities included coloring worksheets and memory games.

Another game, called monster making multiplication, had students pull multiple ping pong balls from a monster mouth and then add or multiply them.

“How many monsters did you put your hand in?” Dannielle Bland asked Cameron, her 5-year-old son.

Bland, also brought her daughter Azalea, 9, and the children’s aunt.

“It’s fun to see what they’re able to do,” Bland said. “I wasn’t expecting this many people ... It has hope for this community.”

The large turnout was seen as a positive by many parents, and it’s probably just the kind of comment that Heather Dovenspike, executive director of the Dunbar Center, likes to hear.

“This is a collaboration with the school, and this is to bring parents in and get them more involved in their children’s education,” Dovenspike said. “The student teachers have had a lot to do with this particular math night. I think they’ve done a lot of work with it.”

The after school program at Broad Street started up in February 2013. It runs for three hours after school everyday, and includes homework help, enrichment activities and a meal. There also is a similar program at Center Avenue Elementary.

A fundraiser at the Chop Shop restaurant in Butler this month yielded almost $2,000 for the Dunbar Center, which will help to fund the elementary after school programs.

The math night was open to all parents with elementary students in the school district.