Traditions around food and feasts provide rich opportunities to connect math at school with children’s experiences at home. From Diwali to Thanksgiving, fall is a season of special meals with loved ones.

This game played with a hula hoop and bean bags demonstrates all the math that can be explored with a simple tossing game. Each round gives children practice seeing and naming smaller parts of a total number in a variety of ways.

Many classrooms are planning year-end picnics, so it’s the perfect time to read We’re Going on a Picnic! by the beloved author Pat Hutchins.

Have some Halloween fun with the witch’s tale Room on the Broom. In this lively story by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, a witch makes room for her animal friends to ride on her broomstick… until there’s one too many animals, and the broom snaps in two. The central question of this book – Is there room on the broom for me? – is a mathematical one.

A student computes how many objects are in a collection that is hidden from view.

A kindergarten student determines how many bears are in and out of their cave.

Liping Ma describes some differences between American and Chinese math educators, specifically concerning the idea of regrouping. “It’s always easier for children to subtract three from ten than from thirteen.”

A child plays “hide-and-seek” with a group of bears to determine how many are missing from a larger group.

A story about bears moving in and out of a cave provides an opportunity for math thinking.

A child works to discover “how many more” a person has.