10 fun photos to support maths talk and bring concepts to life

Lately, I’ve been talking and writing about the importance of visual maths opportunities for learners of all ages. . An earlier article for teachers celebrates a lovely, global initiative called Have You Got Maths Eyes? which is all about building people’s confidence in mathematics by helping each other look for and see the maths around them which otherwise might remain ‘invisible.’ 

Through positive and playful conversations about the maths around us, we can dramatically influence the mathematical trajectory of our family in just a few minutes each day.

This article shares 10 mathematically rich photos and prompts you can use to spark discussion and better understand your child’s maths knowledge and abilities.. 

But first, here are a few ideas to keep in mind:

1. Keep conversations light, playful and positive.

It’s important to ensure that children experience everyday mathematics, not as a test or chore but as an enjoyable part of life. The more we enjoy something, the more we’ll do it, and with that more knowledge and skills will come — to use some maths to make a point! ;)

2. Model curiosity and get involved in sharing ideas. 

Often, children want to be the ones who answer all the math questions. To help keep maths interactions light, playful, and positive, we can use a more collaborative approach where we both contribute ideas. This allows children to listen to and evaluate our ideas and make connections. The suggested prompts with the photos below have been written to support this style of conversation. 

3. Embrace mistakes as part of learning.

Making mistakes is a natural and essential part of learning. When children feel safe to try, guess, and explore without pressure to be "right" all the time, they become more willing to engage and think creatively. 

Sometimes, reacting to a child’s mistake can be as simple as saying: “It sounds like we got different answers. Let’s think about this together.” This way, they see that learning maths is a process. Just like learning to ride a bike or reading books, developing maths skills happens gradually over time.

10 fun photos to talk about (and suggested prompts)

The following ten photos have been selected because they contain critical number concepts and have been ordered according to their complexity. 

Each photo includes recommended questions to help you notice and think about maths together through playful, low-stakes conversations. 

Through pondering a photo together, children can enjoy sharing what they already know and can do and experiment with less familiar skills or strategies.

Prompts for ages 5+

1: Pegs

Source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from Malke Rosenfeld.

Prompt 1: What do you notice about the pegs?

Prompt 2: If I said there were 4 pegs here, would you say that’s right? Why/Why not? 

Prompt 3: How can we know for sure exactly how many pegs there are? One idea is to use counting, or maybe you have another idea.

2: Eggs

Source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from Jenna Laib.

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo. 

Prompt 2: What’s your favourite way of knowing how many eggs there are? For instance, do you prefer counting all the eggs by ones or do you have another way of working out the total? 

3: Berries

Image source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from David Coffey.

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo. 

Prompt 2: If I said there were more raspberries (red berries) than blueberries, would you say that’s right? Why/why not?

4: Peas

Image source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from Dr María del Rosario Zavala

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo. 

Prompt 2: We can’t see how many peas there are in the first two closed pods… How many peas are inside them, and why do you think that? 

Prompts for ages 7+

5: Apples

Image source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from Sakir Gökçebag

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo. 

Prompt 2: I wonder how many apples there are altogether. It’s going to be tricky to count them exactly… But we could estimate! What if I said there were less than 10 — do you think that could be true? Why/why not?

Prompt 3: What if I said there were more than 20 — do you think that could be true? Why/why not?

6: Buttons

Image source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from Delores Rodriguez.

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo. 

Prompt 2: What’s your favourite way of counting up the total number of buttons? Would you use skip-counting to work it out or something else? 

Prompt 3: Now I’m wondering how many button holes! What do you think?

7: Clover

Image source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from Kristen M. Acosta

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo. 

Prompt 2: Did you know that four-leaf clovers are rare? Usually, they have only 3 leaves. I think maybe this photo shows lots of copies of one four-leaf clover (rather than lots of four-leaf clovers) because I don’t think someone can collect so many! I can definitely see more than 10. How many can you see?

Prompt 3: We agree on how many clovers there are. Now I’m wondering how many clover leaves altogether! But I don’t want to count them all by ones. What would you suggest?

Prompts for ages 9+

8: Watermelons

Image source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from Sakir Gökçebag

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo.  

Prompt 2: I wonder how many whole watermelons have been used here. I think it’s going to be tricky to count them exactly because of how they’re cut up into pieces… But we could estimate! What if I said there were more than 4 — do you think that could be true? Why/why not?

9: Cups and Saucers

Image source: ntimages.weebly.com/photos.html. Photo from Amie Albrecht.

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo. 

Prompt 2: What clues can you see that might help someone work out how many cups and saucers altogether?

10: Tiny Table Settings

Prompt 1: Let’s take turns noticing or wondering things about this photo.  Note: Make sure you can all see how on one large setting (on the large plate) there is a tiny table with four tiny settings.

Prompt 2: What if we imagine zooming out and seeing that there are two large settings next to each other, each with four tiny settings? How many tiny settings would there be?

Prompt 3: What if there were 10 large settings? How many tiny settings would there be?

Prompt 4: Did you know that what you’re doing is called algebra? It’s algebra because each time you change the number of large settings, the number of tiny settings changes. 

What if we worked out the number of tiny settings for all the numbers from 1 to 10. Do you think we’d see a pattern? 

Hint: Here’s a table that could help. 

I hope you enjoyed this curated selection of mathematically rich photos. If you’d like to be among the first to know about new articles, resources and other Maths Play news, consider signing up for one or both of our free monthly newsletters. There’s one for teachers and one for families. Click here to sign up.