Teddy Bear Math

While I was away for the summer break a new book found it's way to my desk Teddy Bear Math by Barbara Barbiere McGrath. This book can engage children in a delightful exploration of counting, estimation, sorting, addition and graphing. The rhyming verse encourages readers to grab handfuls of Teddy Bear Counters for a variety of activities. Even if you do not have a set of Teddy Bear Counters for children to use along with reading the book I think it is a great addition to your classroom library.



An earlier book by McGrath, Teddy Bear Counting is a perfect companion to the new title. Together children will build Number Sense and develop counting skills.

Teaching Tip
Substitute beans as an inexpensive substitute for the teddy bear manipulative. I suggest dried white beans that can easily be spray painted red, yellow, purple, blue, orange and green then used for all of the counting and sorting activities.

Ten Flashing Fireflies

"What do we see in the summer night?
Ten flashing fireflies burning bright!
Catch the one twinkling there
Like a star.
One flashing firefly in our jar."

One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting on my grandmother's porch at dusk waiting for the fireflies. Some nights all of the cousins would happily run around and try to catch them other nights we would lazily watch as in unison they seemed to float into the tree tops.

Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges beautifully depicts this summer ritual in an imaginative counting book that is the story of a brother and sister catching and counting fireflies then releasing them back into the night.

Teaching Tip
Counting seems such a simple concept from our adult perspective, but for the young child learning to count can be a daunting task. For starters they must learn the number names and the counting sequence, then it gets more complicated with concepts such as cardinality (knowing that the last number said identifies the total number of objects in a group) and stability (knowing that rearranging the position of objects in a group does not change the cardinality). To help youngsters master these complex mathematical ideas we must give them many opportunities to count. Reading books such as Ten Flashing Fireflies can help. Luckily, children often like books read to them over and over again, so each time we read with them we can ask questions that help them learn to count. First, have them count along with the characters. Then, ask them to predict what comes next. For example, when the children have three fireflies in their jar then catch one more ask how many fireflies are now in the jar. Have objects available such as beans, pennies or some other small item and have children use them to represent the fireflies. They can add a bean to a jar (or pile) each time another firefly is captured. After reading they can count the objects again and again.

What other ideas might you have for using Ten Flashing Fireflies to teach basic counting concepts?

KenKen Puzzles

For our final suggestions of fun resources to consider using while celebrating National Brain Training Week (June 11-17, 2011) we will look at KenKen puzzles. Just as with the magic square and sudoku puzzles discussed earlier this week, KenKen puzzles help children develop problem solving skills and number sense. Puzzles also help develop concentration.

Here are a few good sources of KenKen puzzles:

Will Shortz Presents I Can KenKen! Volume 1: 75 Puzzles for Having Fun with Math is recommended for children ages 9-12. Shortz has also published volumes 2 and 3 for the same age range of children. All of the titles in the series include a "Home and Classroom Guide for Parents and Teachers" written by Marilyn Burns.

KenKen puzzles are also available as a handheld game.

Teaching Tip
The bulletin board idea mentioned in the June 15 posing on Sudoku can be adapted for KenKen puzzles.

As an alternative, instead of incorporating the puzzles we have talked about this week into classroom instruction, consider just having number puzzle books available for children to enjoy in their leisure time. Parents might consider having a few number puzzle books available in the car to occupy children on long trips. Magic Squares, Sudoku and KenKen are a great way for children to enjoy math with out any pressure. Let's always remember to create opportunities for children to enjoy the wonder and beauty of mathematics.

A dime doesn't buy as much as it use to

I've had money on my mind lately...not because of the economy, but because I've found myself in various conversations about children and money. Specifically, the topic has been concern that children are exhibiting increasing difficulty counting and exchanging coins. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that as our society evolves and depends more and more on digital commerce children have less and less opportunity to see the use of coins modeled in everyday life.

"Clink, clink, clink, clink...Clink, clink, clinkity... Money saved in a bank makes your brain think-thinkity!"

In You Can't Buy a Dinosaur with a Dime author Harriet Ziefert uses rhyming verse to tell the story of Pete and his experience in earning, saving and budgeting his allowance. Readers can join him as he saves, spends, and strategizes over future purchases.

Teaching Tip
If possible, provide children with an assortment of real coins to model the actions of Pete as they re-read the book. Encourage students to begin to save coins and create their own spending and saving plan.

Happy May Day

May is a traditional holiday in many cultures. It is similar to the Labor Day holiday celebrated here in the United States. As we celebrate the contributions workers make to all of our lives. let's also note that none of their work could be accomplished without math.

Two books that emphasize that math and numbers are all around us are Missing Math A Number Mystery by Loreen Leedy and Neil's Numberless World by Lucy Coats.

Teaching Tips
Have children work in groups to list all of the different ways they encounter numbers and math in their daily lives. Later have the students share and compare their lists. Then the children can write their own stories.

Checkers, chessboards and rice

"Mathematics is like checkers in being suitable for the young, not too difficult, amusing, and without peril to the state." ~Plato

Yesterday we talked about large numbers. Continuing along that same vein today I offer The King's Chessboard and One Grain of Rice, two takes on the classic doubling problem. Students will be amazed at how quickly simple grains of rice can accumulate. At the same rate as the wise man accumulates rice in the story can your students determine how long it would take before he had one million grains of rice?

Teaching Tip
If your students aren't quite ready to tackle exponential growth you may want to begin with the concept of doubling. A good place to begin is with this investigation Dr. Jennifer M. Suh developed around the book Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong. Suh's article was published in the November 2007 issue of Teaching Children Mathematics. Mathwire.com offers a free template to be used with Two of Everything.

Here is a lesson plan using The King's Chessboard.

Odd or Even ?

In developing number concepts and number sense children learn to recognize numbers as odd or even. Two books that are helpful are Even Steven and Odd Todd by Kathryn Cristaldi and Bears Odd, Bears Even by Harriet Ziefert. Opportunities to develop an understanding of odd and even numbers are bountiful throughout the school day.

Teaching Tips
1. While counting any found objects or manipulatives have the students group the items in pairs. Emphasize that an item that does not have a partner, or any 'left over' item is odd.
2. Have students skip-count by 2's.
3. Give students a hundred's chart and two crayons. Have them shade the even numbers with one color and the odd numbers with a different color.

These sites have activities to help children understand odd and even numbers:
Teacher and Parent resources
Odd and Even exploration

More on estimation

Yesterday my mind (and heart) were on the gulf shore. In retrospect I realized that I could have shared more literature suggestions and teaching ideas about estimation, so we will revisit the topic today.

Stuart J. Murphy offers a nice overview of estimation with Betcha! Teachers can replicate activities such as estimating the number of jellybeans, or other objects, in a jar to give students the opportunity to hone their own estimation skills. Another Murphy title, Coyotes All Around, introduces the concept of rounding to estimate.

Teaching Tip
Discuss real life situations where estimation is appropriate compared to when an exact answer is necessary. The Counting is for the Birds problem, from the February 2010 issue of Teaching Children Mathematics presents an interesting estimation challenge and two estimation strategies.
Sample solutions were published in the February 2011 issue.

A Million Fish...More or Less

With my own family roots deep in the South Louisiana marshland, today I am compelled to mark the one-year anniversary of the Deep Water Horizon disaster and subsequent oil spill that continues to impact the Gulf of Mexico. Rather than bemoan the on-going devastation and unknown long-term impact, I want to pay tribute to the strength and bravery of the citizens. For generations the unique culture has taken hit after hit, but each time these resilient people pick themselves up, patch their lives back together then continue moving forward.

In A Million Fish…More or Less, Patricia C. McKissack aptly captures optimistic spirit found in those who live on the bayou. This yarn, set in the Louisiana swamp, takes exaggeration to a whole new level. McKissack ‘s fish tale can easily be incorporated into a lesson on place value, estimation, or even division of fractions. In my opinion, it provides a natural segue into a lesson on reasonable and unreasonable estimations.

Teaching Tip
I found two lesson plans for you. The first is from TI Education and the second is from Scholastic. Share your ideas for teaching with this book by adding your comments to this post.

Author Spotlight: Greg Tang

Today I want to introduce you to an incredible author, Greg Tang who was inspired to begin writing for children after tutoring math in his first grade daughter's class. His first book, The Grapes of Math, is a clever collection of puzzles and riddles that challenge students to look for patterns, combinations, and other strategies to solve math problems quickly and efficiently. Since then his series has expanded to a total of eight titles each of which is filled with clever verse and engaging puzzles and riddles.



Teaching Tip
Students will benefit from simply reading Tang's books and solving the riddles. You can extend the experience by having students write, illustrate and exchange their own puzzles and riddles. Post the student work in a school hallway for other students to enjoy.

Pattern Books

Long before they enter school, parents can do a lot to help young children develop the ability to think mathematically. One type of book that can help is "pattern books." Children will enjoy the hearing the repetition as adults read the text. In wordless books children will be able to identity the repeated patterns in the pictures.

Teaching Tip:
Ask children to model the pattern in the book by representing it with blocks or some other type of manipulative. Unifix Cubes (snap cubes) work very well for this purpose. Children can snap together cubes of two alternating colors to represent a simple ABAB pattern. A third color cube can be used to represent more complex patterns such as AABAAC.

One is a snail, Ten is a Crab

Author April Pulley Sayre has written a book that takes the classic "counting by feet" problem to a whole new level. Beautiful illustrations of beach scenes depict various sea creatures. In the beginning the reader is simply counting by the number of legs in each scene. After the initial introductions, we see different combinations of legs that help us count up to 100.

Teaching Tips:
The scenario lends itself to a rich problem-solving experience where student can write and exchange original problems based on the book characters. You can find other teaching ideas and sample student work related to this book in the Teaching Children Mathematics article, Legs, Legs, Legs by David and Phyllis Whitin. In my humble opinion David and Phyllis are the math and literature gurus and can always be counted on for rich ideas that work great in the classroom. I've included one of their teaching resources below.