Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares, by Frank Murphy and illustrated by Richard Walz, gives children a look at magic squares (grid with nine spaces that use the first 9 digits in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal rows to have the same sum).  This is a book that contains biographical information and some fiction in explaining how Ben Franklin discovered magic squares.  Its’s fun to make up some magic squares of your own after reading the book.  It’s also amazing for children to learn about Ben Franklin’s accomplishments.  Leave some time to work on your magic squares after reading this book!

Question Collection:

*Which of Ben Franklin’s accomplishments is the most amazing to you?

*What else would you like to learn about Ben Franklin?

*Can you make up some magic squares of your own?

Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

We’ve already introduced you to the Sir Cumference books so you know how clever we think they are!  Sir Cumference and the All the King’s Tens (A Math Adventure), by Cindy Neuschwander and illustrated by Wayne Geehar, is another delightful book for children and parents to enjoy.

In this book a celebration is planned for a gloomy King Arthur.  Counting the crowd who shows up for the celebration becomes overwhelming!  Through the problem solving activities and illustrations, the use of place value is explained.  We hope you enjoy this book like you did the others!

Question Collection:

*Can you think of some other ways to draw the crowd to illustrate place value?

*What are some other times large numbers of people need to be counted?

*What would you do for King Arthur’s celebration?

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

Are you looking for a fun way for your child to learn about fractions?  The Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Fractions Book, by Jerry Pallotta and illustrated by Rob Bolster, is a great place to start!

Make sure you have a Hershey’s chocolate bar as you read this book. The twelve squares that make up the candy bar are the basis for the fractions used initially in this book.  You can use the candy bar as a manipulative as you read the text and examine the illustrations.  Many classrooms use this book but it’s also fun to use as a review at home if your child has participated at school.   We like that the author extends fractions so that more denominators are used linking the candy bar to its origins.

We hope you enjoy this book….and eating the candy bar when you’re through!

Question Collection:

*What did you learn about fractions?

*What other foods can you think of that have natural fractional parts?

*Could you write a math story like this using a different kind of food?

Measuring Penny

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

Measuring Penny, by Loreen Leedy, is an interesting way for children to discover measurement through Penny the dog’s owner, Lisa.  Lisa decides to use Penny, her Boston terrier, for her measurement homework.  What follows is a great way to introduce children to standard and nonstandard measurements in fun ways!

Lisa measures Penny with a ruler, dog biscuits (to compare to her other breeds),  a seesaw, scales, thermometer, stopwatch, etc.  The illustrations are very engaging as the reader can see how the measurement tools are used.  Finally, Lisa measures Penny’s cost and then her value.  We won’t spoil the surprise ending….but you might guess what Lisa decides Penny could also be named!

Question Collection:

*What was your favorite unit of measurement?

*Are there any other ways you can think of to measure Penny?

*Can you think of objects you could use as measurement homework?

M & Ms Math!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

Today we’re reviewing two similar counting books both based on using M & Ms as counting tools.  The first one, The M & M’s Counting Book, by Barbara Barbieri McGrath and illustrated by Roger Glass, uses the candy pieces for counting and sets.  Younger children will have fun looking at all the ways they can group the colored candies.

The other book, More M & M’s Math, also by McGrath, develops more math skills such as estimating, graphing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing (with remainders, too). The review page at the book of the book is a quick reference for children to check what they’ve learned.

We hope you enjoy these math books paired with fun treats!  Enjoy!

Question Collection:

*What math skills did you learn today?

*Are there any other ways you could use math with M & Ms?

*Could you write a math story about a different type of food?

Domino Addition

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

One of the best ways to develop math skills is by using simple visual, tactile objects.  Domino Addition, by Lynnette Long, uses dominoes to teach number recognition, counting, and simple addition.  This is a great book to use with early learners along with a set of dominoes so that they can manipulate the tiles as they listen to the story.  Long does a terrific job of using a readily available game to extend learning.  One example of the way she teaches number recognition and counting is through the photographs of domino tiles arranged in a number (such as 4) and then asking the reader to find the dominoes that have 4 dots on it.  An answer key is given at the bottom of those pages.

If your child is beginning to add single digit numbers, this is a great book to use!

Question Collection:

*Can you arrange dominoes to make numerals?

*Can you make some addition facts with dominoes and write the equations for them?

*What did you learn from this book?

Look Both Ways---City Math

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

We're excited to be looking at math books and ideas this month.  Some of the books we'll be reviewing are fiction and some are nonfiction. Look Both Ways (City Math), a Time Life Series book, is a fun book we found at a used bookstore.  Fortunately, even though it’s an older book, it can still be ordered. There are math mysteries, eye spy fun, computation, measurement, and lots more math to be discovered. Even the inside front and back covers have math games that can be played.  Children can readily find that math is everywhere, hopefully leading to an enjoyment of finding math fun. Elementary aged children (and parents) will find many activities in the 63 pages to return to time and again.  We hope you enjoy the math fun in this book!

Question Collection:

*Which activity is your favorite?

*Which math mystery was the easiest for you?

*Can you think of other math patterns in nature?

Wave

Wave, by Suzy Lee, is a beautiful, wordless picture book!  Through the use of a few colors (blue, gray, and white), a story is told about a girl and her experiences with a wave.  This is a book you’ll want to pick up again and again to look for details and to experience how a child discovers her natural world.  From seeing the girl splashing in the water at the beach to sticking her tongue out at the wave, the reader feels like he/she is at the beach along with the girl.  A beach trip would provide a great opportunity to introduce this book to a child.  Enjoy this fun book with your family!

Question Collection:

*Which scene is your favorite?

*What do you think the girl is thinking?

*What do you think the girl will do the next time she’s at the beach?

The Girl's Like Spaghetti

The Girl’s Like Spaghetti (Why You Can’t Manage Without Apostrophes!), by Lynne Truss and illustrated by Bonnie Timmons, is a great companion piece to Eats Shoots and Leaves.  The purpose of the book is readily seen in the way an apostrophe changes the meaning.  Side by side drawings accompany identically worded sentences that use apostrophes in different ways.  The drawings help children visualize how an apostrophe changes the meaning of a sentence.  The book is really quite humorous as you look at the sentences and pictures.  We think this book is a fun teaching resource!

Question Collection:

*What did you learn about apostrophes?

*Which one was your favorite example?

*Can you think of some sentences you could add to the book?

Mirror, Mirror

How does a poem about a fairy tale show a new way to read?  Be sure to read Mirror, Mirror, by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Josee Masse, and you'll find out!  It is one of the most clever books we’ve ever read! 

Singer uses the “reverso” technique that takes classic fairy tales and reverses the telling of them.  The first line of her poems becomes the last line in the next poem, the second line becomes the next to last line, etc.  The effect is amazing!  The artwork by Masse parallels the reverse idea with split drawings that capture your eye. 

We think this is a book that can spur conversations about poems, fairy tales, writing techniques, and visual strategies!  I think this book will keep stirring our imaginations.  We hope you enjoy Mirror, Mirror!

Question Collection:

*What do you think about the reverso technique?

*Which poem is your favorite?

*Which fairy tale do you think lends itself best to this technique?

*Can you write a reverso?

*Can you draw illustrations to go along with your reverso?

Echoes for the Eye

Celebrate National Poetry Month!  Echoes for the Eye (Poems to Celebrate Patterns in Nature), by Barbara Juster Esbensen and illustrated by Helen K. Davie, is a fun book to celebrate poetry and nature.  We like to look for patterns in nature so this book was especially interesting to us.  Esbensen categorizes the patterns of nature into the following categories:  Spirals, Branches, Polygons, Meanders, and Circles.  Examples of poems in the Branches category are poems about veins and lightning.  This book is a thought provoking collection!  The illustrations encourage a picture walk, possibly before and after reading.  We hope you enjoying reading and viewing these poems!

Question Collection:

*What’s your favorite poem?  Picture?

*What patterns surprised you?

*Can you think of other patterns?

I Am the Book

April is National Poetry Month.  We hope you and your children enjoy poems as much as we do!  We're going to take a few days to look at some of our favorite books of poems.

 I Am the Book, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Yayo, is a great book of poems to start looking at poems.  This collection by Hopkins sparks thinking about the written word through different poems by different poems with the common theme of celebrating reading.  The illustrations by Yayo are fun to explore while also being thought provoking.  We recommend a picture walk to discover all of the clever ways that books are depicted by the artist.   This book would make a great gift to a child or a child’s teacher.  I think this book should be in every library!

Question Collection:

*Which poem is your favorite?

*Which illustration makes you smile?

*Where are all of the places a book can take you?

*Can you think of a way to draw another illustration that corresponds to this book?

Spotty, Stripy, Swirly

Spotty, Stripy, Swirly, by Jane Brockett, is a beautiful book to explore patterns with your child.  We enjoyed looking at the brightly colored photographs and discovering patterns.  The familiar objects used help extend the ideas by encouraging young readers to look for more patterns in their surroundings.  We think you’ll enjoy looking for patterns in this fun book!

Question Collection:

*What was your favorite photograph in the book?

*Where else do you see patterns around you?

*Can you design some patterns?

Mossy

Mossy, by Jan Brett, is a story about an Eastern box turtle and its removal from its environment.  Mossy follows Brett’s signature illustrations with beautifully drawn pictures and details.  Mossy is removed from its environment to a museum because of the interest of the curator (Dr. Carolina) in the garden growing on Mossy’s shell.  Mossy’s sadness moves Dr. Carolina’s niece, Tory, to find a way for children to see the garden while returning Mossy to its natural environment.  Readers can quickly infer the effects of removing an animal from its natural habitat. 

We especially liked all of the details given about nature.  This is a great book for children who are interested in nature and like to study pictures.  Each page can be reviewed many times to find details overlooked the first time.  Jan Brett continues to be one of our favorite authors!

Question Collection:

*Which illustration do you like best?
*How do you think Mossy feels at the beginning, middle, and end of the story?

*Which illustration wants you to learn more about nature?

Sky Color

Have you read Dot or Ish?  Sky Color, by Peter H. Reynolds, is the third book in his Creatilogy.  As a family, we love drawing, painting, and making things.  We’ve been talking about making connections to text and self.    Marisol, the young character in Sky Color is an artist, so it was easy for us to make a connection!

Marisol faces a problem in that she is going to paint the sky for a class mural, but doesn’t have blue paint in her box.  By watching a sunset and remembering her dream, she comes up with a solution to her problem in a very colorful way.  Seeing her creative solution is a delight!  The great thing about the book is that is just opens up conversations about how to “see” things in different ways!

Question Collection:

*Do you think Marisol is creative?

*What problems have you solved creatively?

*What was your favorite illustration in the book?

Paul Thurlby's Alphabet

Paul Thurlby’s Alphabet, by Paul Thurlby, is a fun, graphic book that children and parents will enjoy seeing.  Thurlby uses each letter of the alphabet to make a shape character that reflects the alphabetical word the letter represents.  The designs are bright and modern looking making the book fun to explore.  The Artist’s Note at the end of the book tells more about the process for designing the letters which makes the book even more enjoyable as you learn about this great example of creativity!

Question Collection:

*Which letter is your favorite?

*Which letter do you think is most creative?

*Can you think of other character shapes to write the letters?

Read more children's ABC books here!

If Rocks Could Sing, A Discovered Alphabet

If Rocks Could Sing, A Discovered Alphabet is a beautiful, nature-filled alphabet book!  The author, Leslie McGuirk, in her “Rock Talk” talks about looking for rocks on the Florida seashore for ten years to find rocks that resembled letters.  She found all of the letters except “X” which was found in Maine.  The beauty of this book is that each rock letter is represented by other rocks that look like specific objects.  For example, the letter “P” stands for penguin, and there’s a rock shaped like a penguin on the page.

We found this to be a glorious book depicting the wonders of nature.  We picked it up to read another alphabet book but discovered amazement at rock formations.  We hope you have to chance to look at and enjoy this creative book!

Question Collection:

*Which rock letter is the most unusual to you?

*Which rock object do you like the best?

*Which do you think was the hardest to find?

*Would you like to look for rocks that look like letters?

Read more children's ABC books here!

Baby Einstein The ABCs of Art

Baby Einstein The ABCs of Art, by Julie Aigner-Clark, is an outstanding collection of artwork introduced by key words in alphabetical order.  What a fun way to introduce young children to a wide variety of art pieces!  We especially like the questions that encourage interaction (much like our goal of Question Collection) as the artwork is viewed.

Although the book may be marketed as part of the Baby Einstein collection, this is a book that children can return to at any age as they develop more art appreciation skills.  This is a great book to use before a family trip to an art museum.  The art credits given also help in identifying which pieces might be in a particular museum you anticipate visiting. 

Question Collection:

*Which art is your favorite?

*Would you like to paint in the style of some of these paintings?  

           Which ones?

*Can you make your own art museum by collecting pictures from  

            magazines and newspapers?

Read more children's ABC books here!

The Turn-Around Upside-Down Alphabet Book

There are so many alphabet books that look at the alphabet as a way of representing words, so it was with delight that we found The Turn-Around Upside-Down Alphabet Book, written and illustrated by Lisa Campbell Ernst.  In this ABC book the letters are the stars!  Each letter is represented in bold color against a contrasting color on a black page.  White text frames the letter so that in order to read it you have to turn the book around, then upside down, then turn again…..thus the title of the book!  The fun thing is that when you turn the book around and upside down you see what the letter becomes, pretends to be, or dreams of being.  For example, the yellow O (on an orange background) “pretends to be a bagel, an owl’s eye, and a fried egg.” 

We think the author/illustrator has designed a very clever book!  We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Question Collection:

*Which letter surprised you?

*What other things can you see from the letters?

*Which letters are your favorites?

*Are there other things that you see that look like something else  

         when you turn them around or turn them upside down? 

Read more children's ABC books!

Blokus Junior Game

Are you looking for a strategy game that will challenge your child?  We found that the Blokus Junior Game is a fun way for children to begin understanding strategies in a visual manner.  Small green and red two dimensional blocks are configured in various ways and placed on a grid.  The object of the game is to place as many of your pieces on the board as you alternate turns with another player.  The winner is the person with the fewest blocks left.

Paper patterns are also included in the game set so that your children can copy the pre-made patterns.  As your children understand more of the game, they can just use the plastic grid to make their own designs.

We like this game as a family because it changes each time you play it and really makes players aware of visual strategy.  As learning becomes more visually oriented we think this will build visual skills.  We hope you enjoy this game as much as we do!