Math is everywhere
Make math come alive with images of math in daily life.
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 images you'll find in each section below are examples of real world math, which help our students see math as more than a set of rules we memorize in school. Use the pictures 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.
Check out our "Math is Everywhere" photo books and workbooks:
Here are some ways to use these pictures in your classroom:
Engage your students in a math talk. Ask students questions about each picture, such as, "What do you notice? What math do you see?" Students can first turn and share their ideas with a partner before sharing ideas out to the whole group. 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 situations. In each of the links below, you'll find specific math questions you can ask about each photo.
Turn these math pictures into word problems. Have students write their own word problems and swap with a partner to solve. Encourage students to draw pictures or diagrams to show the math they see in the photos as they solve the word problems.
Encourage students to find their own examples of math. Give them cameras, tablets, or drawing tools that allow them to capture the math they encounter in everyday life. Take an exploratory walk inside the school or around the neighborhood. Have students take or draw pictures of the math they find on your walk. Put these pictures up in the classroom afterwards and have a gallery walk to allow students to notice and comment on the math their classmates recorded.