So Square

Thoughts of summer have me longing for the beach. Since I can't sink my toes in the warm sand just now, I'll have to enjoy Sea Squares by Joy Hulme instead. On the surface, Sea Squares might be mistaken for a simple counting or pattern book. Actually the rhymes are a great introduction to squaring numbers from 1 to 10.

Teaching Tip
Distribute grid paper and have the students create an array to represent the various animals found on each two-page spread. For example, ``8 `octos' on the ocean floor/ Have scrambled legs, 64.'' can be represented with an 8 by 8 square drawn on the grid paper. Guide the students to also express the representation mathematically as 8 x 8 = 64.