What Is a Documentation Panel?
A documentation panel is a Reggio Emilia tradition: it makes your thinking visible. It is not a tidy poster of correct answers — it is an honest trace of your journey as a mathematical investigator. It shows the questions you asked, the dead ends you hit, the discoveries that surprised you, and the way your thinking grew and shifted over 30 days. A visitor to your panel should leave knowing something real about how you think — not just what you concluded.
The 8 Elements of a Great Mathematical Documentation Panel
1
A title & your investigation question
What did you investigate over 30 days? Your title names your field study; your question is the thread that runs through everything.
2
Selected work samples
2–3 pieces from your math journal that show your best thinking — not necessarily the neatest pages, but the ones where you can see your mind at work.
3
A graph or data display
One visual from your field study investigation — the graph you chose to represent your data and why that choice made sense.
4
A moment of genuine confusion
Something that did not make sense to you — and an honest account of what happened next. Did you work through it? Are you still thinking about it?
5
Your biggest discovery
The one thing that genuinely surprised you across all 30 days. Not the answer you were supposed to find — the thing you did not expect.
6
A connection to the world beyond class
Where did this mathematics appear in your life outside the classroom? Real connections — in a shop, at home, in a game, in the news.
7
How your thinking changed
Then versus now — in your own words. What did you believe about mathematics at the start that you no longer believe, or understand differently?
8
Your open question
The mathematical question you are still holding — the one you genuinely do not know the answer to and would like to keep investigating.
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A Note on Choosing There is no right answer about which work to display. You are not choosing the most correct piece — you are choosing the piece that best shows how you think. A page full of crossings-out can be more powerful than a clean answer. Confusion, honestly shown, is a sign of genuine investigation. Choose what is true, not what looks impressive.
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Unit 1 · Number Sense & Operations · Days 1–6
Which piece of work from this unit will you display — and why did you choose it? What does it show about your thinking?
Unit 2 · The World of Fractions · Days 7–13
Which piece of work from this unit will you display — and why did you choose it? What does it show about your thinking?
Unit 3 · Decimals & Percents · Days 14–19
Which piece of work from this unit will you display — and why did you choose it? What does it show about your thinking?
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Unit 4 · Ratios & Proportional Reasoning · Days 20–22
Which piece of work from this unit will you display — and why did you choose it? What does it show about your thinking?
Unit 5 · Geometry & Measurement · Days 22–26
Which piece of work from this unit will you display — and why did you choose it? What does it show about your thinking?
Unit 6 · Data, Statistics & Final Project · Days 27–30
Which piece of work from this unit will you display — and why did you choose it? What does it show about your thinking?
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Critical Thinking — Your Open Problem Mathematicians spend their lives on open problems: questions with no known answer yet. What is one mathematical question you genuinely do not know the answer to, and would like to keep investigating? Write it on your Open Problem exhibition card. It can be small or enormous. Both are honourable.
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Name
Date
My Biggest Mathematical Surprise
Over 30 days, one discovery genuinely surprised me. I did not expect it — it changed how I think about something. Here is what it was, and why it surprised me:
How My Thinking Changed
At the start, I thought…
→
Now I think…
✎  Letter to Next Year's 5th Graders
You are the first group to travel through this 30-day mathematical field study. Write an honest letter to the students who will do this next year. What should they know? What surprised you? What does math really mean, if you had to say it in your own words?
Dear future 5th grader,
Signed
Date
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