Divide and Ride

Divide and Ride

By: Stuart J. Murphy

Illustrated by: George Ulrich

Grades: 2-4

A group of students go to a carnival where there are many rides to go on.  Different rides held a different amount of students per chair.  The students have to figure out how many more students they needed to find to fit all their friends and fill the chairs. While students are reading this book, they can work with the students in the book to find the answers.  Students learn math without knowing it!

About the Author:

Stuart J. Murphy started to really enjoy writing when his forth grade teacher told him that he should start to write his stories down.  He ended up attending the Rhode Island School of Design for art.  He became interested in educational text which led him to being on text book committees and working on curriculum.  While working with older students, Murphy found that pictures helped reluctant learners which lead him to think that pictures would help young students with math.  Ultimately, Murphy started to write a collection of math books for children. 

Theme: Students learn about math through real life situations which makes learning math enjoyable.

Pre-Reading Activities:

Ask students: Have you ever been to a carnival?  What kinds of rides have you been on?  Have you had to split up when you go to the carnival with a big group of friends?  How did it turn out?

Turn to a partner and discuss going on rides and how many seats each ride has.  Discuss what you would do if all of your friends did not fit in the seats and there was one friend left without a seat.

Post Reading Activities:

Ask students: Did any of the students get left out on a ride?  What did the students do if one of the seats were not filled?  What did they do when all of the student could fit on the ride but there were still empty seats? 

Have the class all stand up.  Tell them that they are going to be given different numbers and they have to split up into groups of that number. By doing this they will be able to see how many other people they have to find to make sure that each group has the correct amount.

Fraction Action

 

Fraction Action

By: Loreen Leedy

Grades: 3-4

This book a great book to help students learn about fractions and get them interested in fractions.  It is about a teacher, Miss Prime, who is teaching her class about fractions. She takes examples from the real word to show what fractions are.  After using examples, they show how they practice fractions and use it in their own lives.

About the Author:
Loreen Leedy attended college for art.  With her art degree she started designing jewelry which ultimately became characters in her books.  She has now written and illustrated over 40 children's books and she is still writing to this day. 

Theme: The theme of this book is math and how it can be fun.  This is done by using animals and a variety of situations that students would find interesting.

Pre-Reading Activities:

Ask students: Do you ever share anything with your brothers or sisters or friends?  Do you split it evenly?  If you and I were to split it with two of you, how much do you have?

Also, show students sample questions to go along with these questions. 

Post Reading Activities:

Ask students: What did Miss Prime’s Class learn about fractions?  How can you use fractions at home, in school, on the playground?

Write some examples of fractions on the board: Use fraction form and pictures.  The students will be encouraged to answer questions asked about what each fraction is.

The M&M's Counting Book

The M&M's Counting Book

By: Barbara Barbieri McGrath

Ages: 3-7
Awards: The Teacher's Choice Award from Learning Magazine

The M&M's Counting Book is a great book to help students learn about counting, adding, subtracting, and shapes.  Students love candy and teachers already use food for math so an exciting book is the best addition.  Older students can use the book and complete the given activities on their own.  The book helps students by giving them instruction and then praise for after they completed a task.  For younger students, this is a great book for teachers to use as a visual as they teach their math lesson. 

Theme: Shapes, addition, subtraction, and counting are important part of the book in the sense that the students have to use these aspects of math while they read the book.

About the Author:
Barbara McGrath obtaining her degree in Early Childhood Education from Lasell College.  With this degree she opened a preschool where she taught four and five year olds for sixteen years.  While working she did freelance writing and then went on to write over twenty children's books.  McGrath travels to talk about writing and math to students so that they will be inspired to complete writing pieces of their own.

 

Pre-Reading Activities:

This book is an activity within it self.  Supply each student with an appropriate amount of M&M's then select a few pages from the book and complete these activities with the students. 

Post-Reading Activities:  
Have a discussion with the students about what they liked and disliked about the activities.  Tell the students that this activity will be available for them.  Have a center with either M&M's or colored circles at a table so that students can sit down and try to complete different pages of the book (a teacher will need to be present for the younger students).

Counting Kisses

Counting Kisses

By: Karen Katz

Ages: Infant - Preschool

This is a book that uses the story of a mother and her baby to encourage counting.  Starting at ten, the mother counts down to one.  In doing this, each number is associated with different types of kisses. 


Theme: This book teaches students about counting in a loving way.

About the Author:
Karen Katz is a true artist at heart.  She has worked designing costumes, doing graphic design, been a fabric artist, and has been a quilt maker.  She believes that these careers have helped her in becoming a children's book author and illustrator.  Ultimately, her inspiration for writing children's book was her daughter, who she adopted from Guatemala.

Pre-Reading Activities:
Have students discuss who they say goodnight too and how they do this.  Students will have the opportunity to share their bedtime rituals as well as hear others. 

Post-Reading Activities:
Students can look around the classroom to find different things they want to count.  Students can use one object or assign different objects to different numbers.  After, students should count their objects and can draw pictures to go along with it.