Elementary math talk that starts from what children bring.
Kids Math Talk pairs elementary math coach Desiree Harrison with guests, several of them authors of teaching books, for conversations about how children come to understand math. The talk stays close to the school day: fact fluency that lasts, word problems given room to breathe, and professional learning that treats teachers as just as capable as their students.
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Kids Math Talk is an interview podcast about elementary mathematics and the beliefs adults bring to teaching it. Desiree Harrison hosts, introducing herself as an elementary math coach and the founder of Kids Math Talk. By the show's own account, it talks a lot about asset-based pedagogy and about beliefs over who can learn math. The guests test those ideas against practice. Dr. John Tapper's episode is framed as a push past belief and theory toward on-the-ground practice and evidence. One line from that conversation turns a familiar assumption around: the job is not to present math so children can learn it, but to understand learners so they can understand math. Practical questions get their turn too. With Dr. Juli K. Dixon, the talk runs through what teachers ask when they size up a fact fluency resource, from preparation time each week to differentiation to fitting it into a packed schedule. She describes a pilot that ran in third, fourth and fifth grade at once, and notes that facts learned without multiplicative reasoning are often forgotten the following year. Kim Morrow-Leong and Sara Delano Moore make the case for slowing down. Their sandbox is a metaphor for the time and space children need to play with a word problem, represent it and translate it into something meaningful before solving it. The episode's introduction defines bare number problems as equations with no context, such as three plus five. The guests argue that a moment for mathematizing can come from a child's story about home, an idea in science or a map, and that a predetermined pace leaves no room to catch it. Peter Liljedahl's episode centres on his book Building Thinking Classrooms and picks up a discussion from episode 15 about labeling and ability grouping. The show describes both as practices that hinder growth and can damage a child's mathematical identity. Chase Orton's two-part conversation on professional learning applies the same thinking to teachers. He contrasts a content-focused system with a story-focused one and asks where joy, curiosity, perseverance and empathy show up on a standardized test. The shift he wants for students, sharing authority and treating learners as capable, is the same shift he wants in the professional development room. The second part asks listeners to hear the first before pressing play, so the pair works best in order. For concrete classroom logistics, the Dixon conversation is the natural place to begin. For the bigger argument about labels and belonging, start with Liljedahl or Orton.
Made for: Suits an elementary teacher, math coach or parent who wants research-minded ideas about teaching math, tied to everyday classroom questions like preparation time, differentiation and pacing.
What sets it apart: It treats the adults' learning as part of the math problem. Classroom specifics such as fact fluency and play with word problems sit alongside conversations about labeling, ability grouping, and professional development that shares authority the way a strong math class does.
Children are listening and learning from everything we say. The goal of the Kids Math Talk Podcast is to give parents and educators practical tips and insights that will deepen mathematical understanding while also encouraging the conversation about math to remain active and positive.
Word problems get a sandbox before they get an answer; your lesson plan may need one too.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A thoughtful case for shifting math teaching from accountability toward responsibility, equity, and students' full humanity.
Professional learning takes on a clearer moral charge as Chase Orton contrasts accountability with responsibility. Speaking with Desiree Harrison, he frames teachers as active shapers of mathematical learning, not merely responders to habits a system may have trained into…
A thoughtful conversation about replacing deficit assumptions with closer attention to learners and the teaching they deserve.
Kids Math Talk frames asset-based pedagogy as a serious test of classroom practice: can teachers know their learners well enough to help them know mathematics?
A grounded look at fact fluency, preparation time, differentiation, and how students carry facts forward.
Fact fluency is framed as a practical design problem, shaped by preparation time, differentiation, and the squeeze of a crowded school schedule. Dr.
A reflective case for giving teachers more agency in professional learning.
Kids Math Talk frames professional learning less as a scheduled block and more as a question of teacher agency. Chase Orton draws on his classroom years, coaching work, and The Imperfect and Unfinished Math Teacher to argue that educators deserve to be treated as capable,…
A practical case for giving young mathematicians time to make word problems mean something.
A metaphorical sandbox gives young math learners permission to sit with word problems before racing toward an answer. The episode frames that space through mathematizing: noticing the mathematics inside a child's story, a picture book, a science idea, or a map, then using…
Math class, minus the shame spiral.
Ten frames, place value discs, and the why behind them.
Héctor and Beto dissect Mexican grammar, slang, and news in native-speed Spanish conversations.
Small habit changes meet hands-on AI experiments.
Chase Orton and Desiree Harrison connect Peter Liljedahl, NCTM's "Catalyzing Change," and the Kids Math Talk focus on professional learning.
Kids Math Talk host Desiree Harrison interviews John Tapper, founder of All Learners Network, about improving mathematics teaching through evidence from student thinking.
Desiree Harrison interviews Dr.
Chase Orton discusses The Imperfect and Unfinished Math Teacher with Kids Math Talk host Desiree Harrison, focusing on professional learning for mathematics educators.
Desiree Harris talks with Sarah Delano Moore and Kimberly Mara Leong about the K–2 book series Mathematize It and its idea of a "mathematizing sandbox." Sarah defines mathematizing as the space between reading a problem and calculating, while Kim links it to children using multiple representations and manipulatives.
This episode continues a discussion on unproductive math practices and interviews researcher Peter Lilliedahl about his book on building thinking classrooms.
This episode critiques ability grouping in elementary math classrooms, arguing it undermines equity and positive mathematical identity.
This episode explores how to expose children to economics as a career path through math education, featuring guest Anna Gifty.
This episode features authors of 'Activating Math Talk' discussing techniques to increase student discourse and build positive math identities in elementary classrooms.