Facilitating Math Talks with Young Children

Math talk prompts are simple, open-ended invitations that encourage children to think, wonder, and talk about mathematics. They provide a starting point for meaningful math conversations and give children an opportunity to share their mathematical thinking with others.

A prompt might include a photograph, a number, a pattern, a collection of objects, or an interesting mathematical question. Rather than looking for one right answer, the goal is to encourage children to explore different possibilities, make connections, and explain their thinking.

One of the things I love about using math talk prompts is that every child can participate in their own way. There are many different entry points, and children often surprise us with the ideas and strategies they bring to the conversation. As they listen to one another, they begin to see that there can be many different ways to think about and solve a problem.

Math talk prompts don't need to be complicated or require a lot of preparation. Sometimes the simplest questions lead to the richest mathematical conversations!

When I first started teaching kindergarten many years ago it was expected that the morning circle would begin with 'calendar time' where children would put a sticky number on a large grid to depict the day and there would be an extensive discussion about the calendar (e.g., day of the week, month, year). However over the years I realized that this was a very teacher-directed task and not as meaningful a use of our time. After reading Sherry Parrish's work on number talks I was inspired to use our morning message as an anchor for math talks. Wanting to still introduce the date to students, the numerical representation of the date became the foundation for our number talks most days. Sometimes I would use other prompts depending on the events and interests emerging in our classroom. When I reflect upon our math talks now I realize that any math concept can become part of a math talk if the right open-ended question is asked. It's exciting to explore different concepts in this engaging way! If you would like to read more about number talks in kindergarten, you can access an article I wrote for the Journal of Teaching and Learning here: Joyful Number Talks in Kindergarten. 

 

Over the years I have shared my math talks on social media and have been asked repeatedly to create a guide to support educators who wish to engage their students in math talks. This inspired my collection of monthly math talk books. Each book contain 25 prompts to engage children in regular conversations in the classroom. The prompts do not need to be followed in order. Additionally many educators have requested that I create a digital version of the talks for use with a projector or smart board. To complement the digital versions I have created printables that can be used to extend and support the ideas explored in the talks. These digital math talks and worksheets can be used as entry work, math warm ups, group/paired work, early finishers, math groups, exit tickets and assessment opportunities. Additional resources will be added to this page as they are created. Click on the image to be linked to where it can be downloaded or purchased.  

 

  

  

 

      

Additional resources will be added to this page as they are created.