I know when you see the picture, the egg immediately jumps out.  It doesn’t belong because of the fact that it’s not a fruit, right?

But you can’t let the students answer that way.  You have to push their thinking. How does one of those items not belong MATHEMATICALLY? Can we talk about measurement, shape, symmetry, or patterns?

Whenever we want to have students use precision of language in mathematics, we need to give them the opportunity to have authentic conversations about real life things.  We can’t create a language rich classroom without connecting mathematical terms to something that they know. We need to listen for mathematics in their every day language, not just during math class.