Maths Warm Up: Maths Is All Around Us 1

The Sydney Teacher Blog

Maths Warm-Up: Maths Is All Around Us 1

Have you ever found yourself doing mental maths while ordering ice-cream? That’s exactly how this little idea started!

While lining up for ice-cream with my four-year-old and calculating the cost of a cookies and cream, pistachio and chocolate cone (a small fortune!), I started thinking about all the ways we use maths in everyday life.

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Maths Is All Around Us

Maths really is everywhere, and I thought it would be fun to start capturing it in everyday life. So, I'll be sharing a Monday Morning Maths Club mini-series called Maths Is All Around Us, using everyday situations to get students thinking mathematically.

How It Works

For part one, we're heading straight to the ice-cream shop! Display the ice-cream menu to your class and challenge students to solve these real-life maths problems.

What's the price difference between a baby scoop and a triple scoop?
If you buy a boysenberry cake, how much change will you get from $100?
A family of four each wants a double scoop of ice-cream. How much will it cost altogether?
How many 50c coins would you need to buy a baby scoop?
Choose three items from the menu and calculate the total cost.

Encourage students to show their working, share their strategies, and explain how they arrived at their answers. Want to extend the activity? Ask students to write their own maths questions using the menu for a classmate to solve!

Why It's So Good

• Helps students see how maths is used in everyday situation.

• Builds confidence with prices, calculations, and working out change.

• Encourages students to solve problems in different ways and explain their reasoning.

• A quick, engaging warm-up that requires minimal preparation.

• An ice-cream menu is a fun, familiar starting point for meaningful mathematical conversations!

Next time you're looking for a Monday morning maths warm-up, try bringing a little everyday maths into your classroom. Start with this ice-cream menu, see where your students take the questions, and keep an eye out for the maths hiding in your own daily adventures!

Promotional graphic for a mathematics photo prompts educational resource titled '30 Mathematics Photo Prompts'. The design features a light blue and white background with a laptop mockup displaying four maths related questions about the Sydney Opera House. Below is a light blue banner with text that reads 'Years 3-6' beside 'Volume 1 Sights of Sydney'.

Promotional graphic showing two sample pages with text about including 30 photos from around Sydney for real-life mathematical situations. The design includes headings for addition, subtraction, calculating change, angles, multiplication, and division, plus a note saying loads more.

A digital promotional graphic for editable PowerPoint slides, with large text at the top reading '100% EDITABLE POWERPOINT SLIDES SO YOU CAN ADD, REMOVE AND CHANGE QUESTIONS AS YOU NEED.' Below is a tablet mockup showing a math lesson slide deck with a train photo and text boxes.

A laptop mockup displaying a maths presentation slide titled 'MATHS IS ALL AROUND US' with text above reading 'ALL ANSWERS PROVIDED WITHIN THE PRESENTER NOTES, SO NO PREP (OR THINKING) REQUIRED!'. The screen shows educational content, and the laptop sits on a white background with a light blue border.

30 Mathematics Picture Prompts - Vol 1 'Sights of Sydney'

$13.00 AUD

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Students often struggle to see the point of what they're learning in their maths lessons, questioning when they'll ever use it in 'real life.' And that's because classroom mathematics is often more conceptual than it is practical.

That's exactly why these mathematics photo prompts are so engaging. They give students opportunities to apply their maths knowledge in ways that are actually relevant to their everyday lives.

All 30 photos were taken by me, all around Sydney, everywhere from the Harbour Bridge to a parking sign near my own house.

Each one comes with three questions that build in difficulty, plus a "write your own question" prompt to extend.

A bus timetable becomes an elapsed time problem, an ice-cream menu becomes a money problem, and a manhole cover becomes a shape and fraction hunt. Instead of solving for x on a worksheet, your students are exploring the maths they'll actually come across outside the classroom.

A number of the photos are also of Sydney landmarks, so where possible I've linked to further reading if you'd like to turn a lesson into a bit of history or geography too.

It works as a warm up, an exit ticket, or a filler for those last few minutes before the bell.

NOTE: This product is in PowerPoint format, please make sure you have this installed on your computer before purchasing.