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This article focuses on students' meaning-making when working with mathematics textbooks from a multimodal approach that encompasses all resources for communication, which is an under researched area. Central to this study are the designed meanings of the textbooks and the affordances discovered by students when working with the textbooks. Video transcripts from 18 Year 1 (ages 7–8) students working with seven textbook pages were analysed. The results show that the designs of exercises are complex, that the students use different approaches when working with the textbook – from one exercise to another as well as within the same exercise – and that they sometimes discover content other than what the textbook was designed to offer. Conclusions drawn from this are that textbooks can be improved as learning tools – multimodal aspects of this are highlighted – and that more awareness of multimodality in mathematics teaching could support students' mathematical learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]