How is it possible to have too many tamales? Well, Maria finds out in the book Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. In this holiday storybook, what starts out as a fun experience helping mama make tamales becomes a frantic search for mama’s wedding ring. But it’s in the search that Maria and her cousins are faced with the math concept of too many.

The holidays are coming up, and usually that involves a lot of eating. This provides plenty of opportunities to find math all around us.

It’s finally autumn, and here in Chicago that means there’s a feeling of foreboding in the air about when winter’s going to hit. A small comfort in the changing weather is that it offers some opportunities for winter math activities, specifically those that are relevant to students’ personal experiences.

Here are some refreshing books about water and ocean fun that inspire mathematical thinking for summer months. Dive right in!

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.

These two first-grade teachers plan a visual number talk together using ten frames. After both try it, they reflect on the strategies that students used.

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.

In this one-on-one conversation, an English Language Learner in kindergarten explains his thinking while working through a number story about people getting on and off of the bus.

“I was taught algorithms in school,” says coach Liz Avila. “There wasn’t much thought that went into the math that I did.” The Innovations project aims to alter this “plug-and-chug” method of problem solving, through strategies such as number talks and grade-level meetings.

Counting in sets of ten is a skill that we develop and internalize at a very young age. However, surprisingly, there are dozens of different counting systems, many still in use today. Understanding and exploring other counting systems can be helpful to children.