July 2026

Math Bingo in the Wild

In our June newsletter, Chris shared the Math Bingo card — now available on our website in English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian. We hoped you’d take it out into the world with your families this summer. And it sounds like many of you have!

Here’s what it looked like in my (Erin’s) own home.

I gave the card to my 4 and 6-year-old daughters on a regular weekday evening — sweetened with the offer of an ice cream cone once they completed all the squares. They examined each one carefully and started exactly where you’d expect — the easy wins!

Here were the first boxes to get knocked out, all in just a few minutes!

The next day, we took the cards on the road for a day trip into the mountains. Over the course of our one-hour drive, they knocked out more squares:

• Find a car that doesn’t have 4 wheels (thank you, Jeep Wrangler!)
• Find a tree shorter than a person
• Count 10 yellow cars
• Find an octagon in the real world
• And, thanks to the frequent A-frame buildings of mountain towns, we even got the elusive triangle-shaped window!

The quest for the bingo blackout continues — and this is exactly what early math is supposed to look like. Noticing things. Talking about them. Connecting over them. That conversation happening in your everyday life is one of the most powerful things you can do for your child’s mathematical future.

All of this is accomplishing at least three critical things at once:

• Creating experiences for us to connect with our children
• Developing positive mindsets towards math from a young age
• Laying important groundwork for learning mathematics in elementary school and beyond.

It’s been wonderful to see and hear from many of you using the cards!

If you haven’t downloaded yours yet, it’s not too late — find it on our website in five languages.

EFM Math Bingo Cards

Already tried it? I’d love to hear from you — send a note or a photo to erin@rootsandwingsmath.com! You can also consider subscribing to either or both of my other ongoing newsletters:

• Roots and Wings Math Educator Newsletter (geared towards K-8 teachers)
• Roots and Wings Math Parent Newsletter (geared towards parents of preschool-age children)

Wishing you a continued math-y summer,

Erin