“What two numbers are best friends?” – Kids and Creative Math Journaling
What would a child say when you ask them “what two numbers are best friends?” ?
We all know that kids are imaginative, creative, and naturally curious. In a math classroom, using math journals is an integral part of teaching and learning. Math journals are excellent for elementary students to communicate mathematical thinking and for teachers assess students’ mathematical processes. It brings a greater focus onto the thinking process rather than achieving the final answer.
Math journals tend to focus on problem solving. Students are presented a problem and are asked to give the solution in forms of numbers, pictures, and words that explain their thinking. But once in a while, it is nice to give open-ended questions as a journaling prompt, questions that allow students to use their imagination and creativity.
These topics are good for students from Grades 1 to 3:
What two numbers are best friends with each other?
What two numbers are enemies?
If you have $100, what would you do with it?
If you could be any shape, what shape would you be?
…And to create these creative math journal prompts, try to think of the following:
questions/prompts that are open-ended
questions/prompts that you could add “explain your answer” to
relevant to mathematics (in the above examples, we still wanted students to think of properties of numbers, basic operations, and characteristics of shapes)
relevant to kids and their world
just like typical math journals, give prompts that encourage students to use numbers, pictures, and words to explain their thinking
hypothetical scenarios (kids like these because it lets them be imaginative!)
Written by Mandy Lam
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