Jumping into number talks has been one of the most exciting adventures I have put myself and my students through. Though, if you’re like me and totally new to this whole thing, you probably are constantly asking yourself, am I doing this right? I have been! All the time! I’ve been reading various number talk books, but my biggest resource (as always) comes from the #MTBoS community. I have been lurking a great deal on Kristin Gray’s (@mathminds) blog. She recently shared some plans for a dot image numbertalk that her team had developed for 3rd grade. While the dot images were rich themselves (which are also appropriate for middle school students!), what drew me most to her post was the planning and reflecting piece which can’t be found in any book. Her consideration of the goal, anticipated responses, her further questions, and then modification of the dot images demonstrates the thought process required to plan and modify number strings to meet the specific goal. If you’re implementing number talks or thinking about implementing them, don’t forget to check out her entire post to see the planning process as well as some rich dot images to share with your students!