Math is everywhere: Photos to inspire math talk workbook: Grades 3 - 5
Dr. Colleen Uscianowski
Paperback
(Independently published, Dec. 19, 2019)
Opportunities to notice and talk about math are everywhere! Making math part of your daily routine helps students find the fun and the relevance in math. This can be especially helpful for students with disabilities or those with math anxiety. The photos you’ll find in this book are examples of real-world math, which help our students see math as more than a set of rules we memorize in school. It can also promote students’ problem-solving skills as they look for examples of math in the photos and solve the questions you pose. Use the photos to show students how we can find math in our everyday world, such as outside in nature, around our neighborhood, in our home and classroom, and at the supermarket.Here are some ways to use this workbook in your classroom:Ask open-ended questions to engage your students in math thinking. You can choose to use either the even-numbered pages or odd-numbered pages for each photo in this workbook. The odd-numbered pages show a photograph. Below each photograph, it prompts students to, “Draw or describe in words the math you see in the photo.” You can ask students open-ended questions about each photo, such as, “What do you notice? What math do you see?” Students can draw or write the math they notice in the box below the photo. Celebrate all of the different kinds of math that students can find. Some students may notice numbers, while others will see shapes or examples of measurement or spatial relations. Use the suggested questions to engage your students in math thinking. The even-numbered pages in this workbook have space for you to write a math question. You will find suggested math questions about each photo starting on page 41. Choose from among these questions and write the question in the blank for students to solve by drawing a picture or using numbers or words. Discuss and celebrate the variety of different solutions that students come up with to answer the question and solve each math problem. Encourage students to write their own questions or problems. Students can create their own math questions about each photo. They can write their question in the box on the even-numbered pages and swap with a partner to solve.