Math in Life Photo Series

The grocery store is one of my favorite places to think about math. Aron, my husband, has gotten used to me saying, “Oh, I’ve just got to take a picture of this!” on our weekly grocery shopping trips. Today I’m sharing a picture I took at the grocery store this week.

This is the first photo I’m sharing as a part of a Math in Life photo series I’m starting. In my book, Math Exchanges, I encourage teachers to find their own rich mathematical life, share that life with their students, and make space in their classroom communities (and beyond!) for students to live their own rich mathematical lives. Sharing photos has always been a part of this practice for me. Include a math in life picture you take (or borrow mine!) in your morning message and ask students a couple of questions that make sense for the photo:

• What do you notice?
• What do you wonder?
• What math does this make you think of?
• What does this picture make you want to figure out?

I took the photo I’m sharing today because I thought the array were particularly interesting. But it might speak to you and your students differently.

When I saw these chicks, I wondered how the 3rd graders I work with would mathematize this picture using multiplication.

Would they think of the rows–8 groups of 6 (8×6)?

Would they group the chicks by color and column?–6 groups of 8 (6×8)?

Would they see each individual box first–2 groups of 6 (2×6) and then four of those boxes 4(2×6)? (What a nice what to start playing with the distributive property!)

Tune in soon for more Math in Life photos!