25 Math Talk Prompts for October

Discover how children can engage in daily math conversations that build their confidence and abilities! Every day children in early childhood and primary classrooms explore math concepts in their conversations and interactions. You can build on that natural curiosity by engaging children in meaningful, complex math learning opportunities using regular math talks. Math talks are regular, short conversations about purposeful, layered problems with children. These are intentionally crafted to invite children into specific math situations, helping them to improve their mathematical confidence and abilities. Math talks are meant to be open-ended opportunities that have multiple entry points and approaches for interpreting and solving the problem. In this book 25 math prompts with an accompanying image are meant to help inspire rich, open-ended math conversations with children. Many of the prompts are inspired by seasonal events and objects specific to that time of year. Use the prompts in order or pick and choose based on the interests and needs of the group. This book can also be used by families who are interested in engaging their child(ren) in regular math conversations at home (e.g., bedtime math).

Based on the experiences in her own classroom author Deanna Pecaski McLennan has created a collection of photos and accompanying questions to help parents and educators facilitate daily math talks with children. With the information and guidance in this resource, you will develop a math-rich classroom while increasing children's interest, confidence, and success in mathematics.