On the Hunt for Math at MoMA

You’re dropping one kid at a birthday party in midtown and you’ve got the other kid in tow. Heading home is an option, though the moment you arrive home it will be time to reverse course and head back to…

The Interior Life of Addition

We’ve covered the critical pieces of developing counting with meaning in this post. What happens next? Enter additive thinking! When counting gives way to reasoning, it is the beginning of additive thinking. The journey from “count everything” to “just know…

Dice and Dominoes

Dice and dominoes are probably some of the first quantities we consciously subitize and assign a numerical value to as children. (Subitizing, you say? What’s that? Check out this post on the many nuances of counting.) The “pip” or dot…

Counting: “Easy as 1-2-3”?

What would you think if I told you counting was actually not as easy as 1-2-3? I was as surprised as you when I studied the development of numeracy in our youngest mathematicians. What we might consider done and dusted…

Maryam Mirzakhani: Curiosity and Creativity

This post features ideas and text from student guest editor E.B. from Class III. Maryan Mirzakhani is one of the mathematicians we learn about as we explore the habits of mind of mathematicians who have accomplished amazing things. We often…

“What would you tell a first grader?”

This is what I asked my second graders when reviewing their homework assignment, which included a question asking them to choose one of three basic addition facts and one of three basic subtraction facts that they found interesting or perhaps…

Math Colored Glasses

Math colored glasses are really just a way of describing a curious, noticing mindset. When you put them on while you are out and about, you start to see the world a little differently. You notice patterns in the tiles…