Archive for the 'math' Category

Teaching Economics With Children’s Literature: Follow the Money!

Published by Deleyah on October 26, 2009 in economics, math, book review and social studies. 0 Comments

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Lindsay Leedy’s  “Follow the Money“, is a humorous book that teaches children the various uses of currency.  Told from the point-of-view of a twenty-five cent quarter, the book starts by describing how money is produced and distributed in the United States.  Throughout the book, the reader is able to follow the journey of the quarter and see the its many uses.  Follow the Money uses pictures and phrases, similar to comic strips, to explain how currency is made in the United States Mint, placed into packaging bags, loaded onto trucks, and distributed to the Federal Reserve Bank and local bank.  It shows children how a certain amounts of money can be exchanged for various products.  For example, Follow the Money shows how money can serve as weekly allowance, a state quarter collection, and savings.  The book concludes at the end of the day with the quarter’s statement, “I wonder where I’ll go tomorrow?” (Leedy, pp. 29)  Follow the Money is an excellent way to learn about and relate to the world of currency.

Curriculum Connections

Follow the Money connects social studies, math, and economics to the world of currency.  The book incorporates math by showing how a customer may pay for an item and possibly receive change.  Math is also incorporated in the form of counting.  Instead of including traditional page numbers, Follow the Money uses currency for page numbers.  For example, page five displays a nickel at the bottom of the page to show the page number.  The book also connects social studies through pictures that explain the people who are displayed on each coin and paper money.  There are also a few captions that describe why that person is significant in history (1.3).  For example, George Washington’s picture is displayed on the one dollar bill and he is described as the first president of the United States.  Last of all, Follow the Money can be used in a classroom setting to help students learn the value of money and how to save it for for future purchase and goods (1.9).     

Additional Resources

  • This link includes other books that relate to economics in a way that children of younger ages can enjoy and understand
  • Contains a writing assignment that allows students to create their own money character and write about its journey for one day.  The assignment assesses student’s knowledge after reading Follow the Money!
  • Need examples of ways that other forms of currency are used in the United States? This website has the story of the adventures of a dollar bill, penny, and many more.  The Adventures of Currency includes questions about the type of currency used in the story, ways to spend, and a trivia quiz at the end of each story.

Book: Follow the Money!

Author and Illustrator: Loreen Leedy

Publisher: Holiday House Publishers

Publication Date: May 2003

Pages: 30 pages

Grade Range:K-3

ISBN: 0823417948

Teaching Economics With Children’s Literature: Ultimate Kids’ Money Book

Published by Sidney on October 24, 2009 in economics, math and book review. 0 Comments

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The Ultimate Kids’ Money Book, written by Neal S. Godfrey, and illustrated by Randy Verougstraete, offers an exuberant approach to understanding the financial side of the economy.  Photographic collages and colorful drawings up the levels of interest and engagement.  Godfrey tells the story of money in a cheerful, understandable manner–from bartering to investing to opportunity cost.  Also, readers will learn more about America’s economic structure and the government’s economic role. Fun financial trivia is interspersed throughout, and word problems and matching games are included in each of the nine chapters as well as user-friendly design features like “Penny for your thoughts” and “Word bank” sidebars.

Curriculum Connections
This book would help students understand the financial aspects of the economy.  It also would be a handy math resource when learning about money.  In the state of Virginia, these topics correlate with Economics SOLs 2.8 and 2.9, dealing with bartering and scarcity as well as 3.9, which focuses on opportunity cost.  This book could also be used a a resource to aid in understanding Mathematics SOL 3.9 which covers counting money.

Additional Resources
   *  Click here for an economics lesson geared towards grades 3-5.
   *  Check out this video on play dough economics.  
   *  Check out this webpage to visit “Econopolis!”
   *  Assess student’s evidence of economic learning here.   

Book: Ultimate Kids’ Money Book
Author- Neal S. Godfrey
Illustrator: Randy Verougstraete
Publisher: Aladdin
Publication Date: 2002
Pages: 128
Grade Range: 3-5
ISBN: –978-0689814891

Teaching Economics with Children’s Literature: The Big Buck Adventure

Published by Kristin on October 22, 2009 in economics, math and book review. 0 Comments

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If you’re in search of a book to teach economics in your classroom, look no further than The Big Buck Adventure written by Shelley Gill and Deborah Tobola and illustrated by Grace Lin.  This colorful, rhyming picture book tells the story of a young girl who receives one dollar from her dad to spend any way she likes.  But as she searches for exactly the right thing(s) to buy, she finds that the decision is harder than she thought it would be.

The book begins when the narrator and her dad are driving into town.  She says, “Saturday morning, I sure am in luck!  A raise in allowance–I get a buck!” As she begins to shop, however, she realizes there are many things she could buy with her dollar, and quickly becomes overwhelmed with the choices.  By the end of the story, she thinks: “Now I wish I didn’t have so much money.  At first this was fun, now it’s not even funny!”  Ultimately, the narrator decides to save the dollar and is quite happy with her choice: “My father walks in.  ‘Hi, honey!  Any luck?’  I just have to laugh as I pocket my buck.”

Curriculum Connections

The Big Buck Adventure could be used in many different ways in the classroom.  Because of the choices the narrator must make, the text is applicable to SOLs focusing on opportunity cost (History/Social Studies 1.8, 1.9, 2.9, 3.9).  Math lessons might also be structured around this book, because the narrator must calculate exactly how many things she can buy with her money.  Reading the book aloud would be a great way to introduce either of these types of lessons; and because the text is very conducive to class discussion, using The Big Buck Adventure would be a fantastic way to get students thinking about real-world connections to what they are learning.

Additional Resources

  • The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has provided a great collection of information about dollar bills, how they are made, and what the symbols on the bills actually mean.  The information could easily be adapted into an interesting lesson about money!

  • Where’s George? is a really interesting and fun way to show students how far their money can travel.  By entering the serial number on any dollar bill, students can track where their money has been–all across the country! 

  • If you’re looking for ways to extend the concept of what students can purchase for one dollar, the World Resources Institute provides a list of how far a dollar can stretch in different countries.  Students can learn how the value of their money matches up to purchases in Africa, India, and South America.

General Information

Book: The Big Buck Adventure
Author: Shelley Gill and Deborah Tobola
Illustrator: Grace Lin
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Publication Date: 2000
Pages: 32
Grade Range: 1-4
ISBN-13: 978-0881062953

 

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: The Great Graph Contest

Published by Michael on August 31, 2009 in process skills, math and book review. 0 Comments

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The Great Graph Contest written and illustrated by Loreen Leedy is a colorful children’s book that tells the story of a graph contest between two friends.  During the contest a salamander, Beezy, and a frog, Gonk, create different graphs using everday items such as cookies, bathing suits, and rocks while a third friend, Chester the snail, judges.  Each time one friend creates a graph, the other tries harder to make a better one.  Each graph is judged by creativity, correct math, and neatness showing children how everyday observations can be displayed as graphs.  At the end of the book there is a few pages that explain each how each graph was created as well as the type of graph.  The use of vivid pictures and unique items allow the children to see that making graphs can be fun and useful.

Curriculum Connections
This book is designed to work with students on both the introduction of graphs as well creating graphs from observed data.  This book can be introduced as young as Kindergarten to introduce tallying all the way up to 4th grade to explore more difficult graphs such as Venn Diagrams. It would be most appropriate for 1st and 2nd grade SOL’s:

  • 1.14: The student will investigate, identify, and describe various forms of data collection (e.g., recording daily temperature, lunch count, attendance, favorite ice cream), using tables, picture graphs, and object graphs.
  • 2.17: The student will use data from experiments to construct picture graphs, pictographs, and bar graphs.
  • 2.19: The student will analyze data displayed in picture graphs, pictographs, and bar graphs.

Additional Resources

  • Kids AOL Homework Help  provides a few activities to help children understand how to use and read graphs.  It provides an audio lesson plan that explains how a student can use graphs to show how she is both like and unlike her classmates, as well as quiz that tests childrens ability to read graphs.
  • Scholastic  provides a lesson plan that can be used to introduce graphs to kindergarten students that can be altered to work with older students as needed.
  • 1st Grade Templates provides templates for excel worksheets that students can use to experiment with graphs andcan also be used as whole class activities to create graphs from observed data.

Book: The Great Graph Contest
Author/Illustrator: Loreen Leedy
Publisher: Holiday House
Publication Date: September 2005
Pages: 32 pages
Grade Range: K-4
ISBN-13: 978-0823417100

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Graphs

Published by Michelle on August 30, 2009 in math, book review and science. 0 Comments

Graphs written by Bonnie Bader and illustrated by Mernie Gallagher Cole is a story about a boy who does not want to go to his family reunion.  Gary, the boy gives many reasons as to why he can’t go to the reunion, including his math homework. His mom tells him to bring his math homework to the party. Gary brings his homework to the party and creates a line, bar and, pie graph of different things at the party. The other children get excited with his work and help Gary complete his graphs.

“I told them about my math homework. I thought they would be bored by it and leave me alone. I was wrong. “We love math!” said Bobby.”

Curriculum Connection

This book is intended to help students learn how to graph different kinds of information. This book can be a good introduction to the different types of graphs. It can also help the students with different things that they can graph. This book can be used for VA SOLs

2.1 f- pictures and bar graphs are constructed using numbered axes

3.1 g- where students will gather, chart, and graph data .

Additional Resources

  • Make A Bar Graph is a great exercise for students to begin learning to make bar graphs themselves. This worksheet has two different sets of information for the students to practice bar graphing.
  • This website gives students more information on the different types of graphs. This website also provides activities for the students to complete their own graphs.
  • This game gives students the opportunity to make their own pie chart. The students can explore and move the different parts of the graph to see how this changes the pie chart. It is very interactive so it helps the students stay engaged.

General Information

Book: Graphs
Author: Bonnie Bader
Illustrator: Mernie Gallagher Cole
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 48 pages
Grade Range: 1-3
ISBN: 0-448-42896-2

Teaching Process Skills With Children’s Literature: How Math Works

Published by Sidney on August 30, 2009 in process skills, math and book review. 0 Comments

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How Math Works, by Carol Vorderman, is an interesting guide to deciphering the mysteries of mathematics.  Geared towards students in grades 3-6, this book includes many hands-on experiments with clear, step-by-step instructions and colorful photographs.  A list of materials needed to create your own home laboratory is included as well.  Students will find experiments such as how to make a thermometer out of a plastic bottle and additional experiments with mass, weight, and volume.  Third graders studying simple machines can learn more about the connections between math and science on page 28 and make their own pulley on page 29.  This book is a wonderful resource for upper elementary students and would come in handy when creating science fair projects.

Curriculum Connections
This book includes a variety of experiments to provide a more concrete, tactile experience with abstract concepts such as measuring volume, mass, weight, temperature.  Along the way, students will be actually “doing” science by making predictions and observations, questioning, forming hypotheses, making inferences and conclusions, and sequencing natural events chronologicially.  When making a pulley, students are learning more about one type of simple machine, how it functions, what it is used for, and that forces cause changes in motion.  By using this book and performing its experiments on measurement, students will make estimations on length, mass and volume, measure accurately using basic tools, and develop an understanding of the nature of science and its connection to mathematics.  All these things relate to the Scientific Investigation, Reasoning and Logic standards in grades 3 through 6.

Additional Resources

  •  Information on simple machines resides here . 
  • To access an interesting lesson plan on volume, click here. 
  • Check out this website to create measurement worksheets. 
  • Here’s another book on math/science connections. 
     

Book: How Math Works
Author: Carol Vorderman
Illustrator: Gurinder Purewall
Publisher: Reader’s Digest
Publication Date: Reprint edition - July 19, 1999
Pages: 192
Grade Range: 3-6
ISBN: 978-0762102334

Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: Lemonade for Sale

Published by Kim on August 28, 2009 in process skills, math and science. 0 Comments

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Lemonade for Sale written by Stuart Murphy, illustrated by Tricia Tusa

The kids in this book set up a lemonade stand and keep track of their sales using a bar graph. It is a great resource for showing students how to make a bar graph and how to chart the data.

The Elm Street Kids Club try to make money to fix up their clubhouse by selling lemonade. All of them have a job to do, but it is Sheri’s job to track their sales. She decides to make a bar graph. “I’ll list the number of cups up the side like this. I’ll show the days of the week along the bottom like this.” Each day she tracks their progress. Their sales increase each day until Thursday when hardley anyone stopped by. The kids do not understand so they decide to set out to find out what is going on. When they find Jed the juggler has just moved there and everyone is watching him instead of buying their lemonade, they come up with a plan. The next day Jed juggles right next to their stand. “We sold so many cups today that our sales are over the top.” They have enough money to rebuild their clubhouse, and they ask Jed to join their club.

Curriculum Connections
This book is a great resource for teaching bar graphs. It talks about how to set them up and how to record the data. It is connected to the VA SOL Scientific  Investigation, Reasoning, and Logic 4.1 (f) The student will plan and conduct investigations in which data are displayed using bar graph.

Additional Resources

Book: Lemonade for Sale
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator: Tricia Tusa
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Publication Date: 1998
Pages: 31 pages
Grade Range: 3-6
ISBN: 9780064467155

Third Grade Math: Collecting Data and Graphing

Published by Jasmine on August 20, 2009 in summermath, resource links and math. 0 Comments

Ever been in a rush but nonetheless wanted/needed to catch up on the news? What did you do? Skim the highlights section above the articles of course! And would you prefer to read through 20 pages of facts or glance at one graph that contains all of the facts?

Being able to gather, organize, read and interpret data in a variety of graphs is an important skill elementary students must acquire. Below are great books, websites and additional resources for developing and enhancing this skill.

Five Great Books on Graphing are:

1) Learning to Graph From a Baby Tiger
Written by:  Ann Whitehead Nagda and Cindy Bickel

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This book follows an orphaned Siberian Tiger cub being raised in the Denver Zoo. There are color photos of the Tiger showing his changing moods and development sure to grab students’ attention. The book illustrates and explains pie, line, picture and bar graphs. It allows students to utilize graphs for “everyday life” situations. Students will also learn when the use of each type of graph is appropriate.

2) Lemonade for Sale                                                                                                                                      
Written by: Stuart J. Murphy; Illustrated by: Tricia Tusa

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Most every student will be able to relate to this book. It is about children keeping track of their lemonade sales using bar graphs. It is a creative story with funny illustrations. It not only involves graphing but also counting money and marketing. This book also allows students to apply their math skills to real life problems.    

3) Graphs                                                                                                                                                                                                    Written Written by: Bonnie Bader; Illustrated by: Mernie Gallagher Cole

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This story is about a boy who tries to get out of going to a family reunion by saying he has math homework. Lucky for him, his mother suggests he take his homework with him! While at the reunion he collects data from various family members. By the end of the day he’s finished his graphing homework. This book clearly demonstrates the information-gathering process as well as graph-making methods.

4) Graphing Activities                                                                                                                                                                              Written by: Joy Evans and Jo Ellen Moore

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This activity book is a great resource for teachers.  It includes easy-to-follow instructions and reproducible patterns, blank graphs and questions. It’s important for students to practice making graphs on top of interpreting and answering questions from pre-made graphs.

5) Great Graphs, Charts and Tables that Build Real-Life Math Skills                                           
Written by: Kiernan

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This activity book gives students the extra practice they need interpreting and reading graphs. It uses real-world data and skill-building questions. It also includes great extension ideas. This book is great for getting students ready for standardized tests.  

Five Handy Websites on Graphing are:

1) Kids’ Zone allows students to create graphs. Students can choose the type of graph and whether it’s horizontal or vertical. They can label the x and y axis, title the graph and adjust values. Students can save and print their graphs.

2) Mental Math Grapher allows students to create graphs. This site is more simplistic. Students can label the x axis and title. They can adjust values and print their finished graph.

3) PBS Kids Go! Cyberchase  has games, lessons, activities and t.v. shows. The Raising the Bar section has an episode that explains why the scale of a graph affects how the graph is interpreted. It also has a graphing game and material that can be printed.

4) Aunty Math has math challenges for grades K-5. There are a variety of subjects including data collection and graphing.

5) Figure This! is a math challenge websites for families. It has a few problems regarding collecting data and graphs. It also has many more challenges in different areas of math.

Additional Helpful Resources:

  • Math Glossary provides students with definitions of important math terms. Some definitions are even interactive for better understanding.
  • Elementary School Math Resources by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is a comprehensive site for teachers and parents. There are activities, lesson ideas, teaching strategies, articles and much more.
  • Hotchalk Lesson Plans Page provides teachers with free lesson plans, worksheets, discussion boards and a newsletter.
  • O’Block Books is a “one stop shop” for early childhood teaching supplies and materials.

Geometry Resources for Fourth Grade

Published by Sue on July 15, 2009 in summermath, math and teaching. 1 Comment

Most of the books recommended here highlight recognition of geometric shapes.  All of them have a cross-curricular connection with social studies, science or art.   One of the web activities for students focuses on identifying polygons.  The rest promote visualization and spatial relationship abilities.

Books with a Geometry Theme

In A Triangle for Adaora, by Ifeoma Onyefulu, a boy promises to find his young cousin a triangle.  In their search, they come across many shapes, including oval-shaped cowrie shells, crescent-shaped plantains, and a square colander made of woven coconut palms.  Illustrated with the author’s photographs, this book provides a wonderful tour of everyday life in a small African village.  Great math-social studies connection.  Locate.

A greedy, materialistic king covets the beautiful quilts that a generous quiltmaker only gives to the needy in this fable by author Jeff Brumbeau.  Will the king find happiness once he finally owns one of the special quilts?  The Quiltmaker’s Gift is densely illustrated with Gail de Marcken’s bright, detailed watercolors. I look forward to incorporating this book and my great-grandmother’s quilts into a lesson on geometric shapes.  Locate.

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Nature-loving children will enjoy Icky Bug Shapes by Jerry Pallotta.  Each shape is introduced by industrious leafcutter ants and illustrated by various insects.  There are plenty of insect facts for the science-lover.  The realistic drawings by Shennen Bersani make these bugs interesting and not icky at all.  Locate.

This book had me dreaming about sending my future students on a shape scavenger hunt around our local art museum.  The  Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Museum Shapes spotlights geometric shapes found in the museum’s collections.  While a field trip may not be possible for my students, I can imagine setting up our own art-shape scavenger hunt closer to the classroom. Locate. 

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Mummy Math by Cindy Neuschwander takes Bibi and brother Matt on an adventure through an Egyptian pyramid.  When they get lost, they follow clues based on geometric solids to reach their goal.  Illustrations by Bryan Langdo.  Locate.

Websites with Geometry Activities for Kids

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 1.  Can you visualize the shape you get from two partially overlapping shapes?  Check your answers interactively.

 

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 2.  Create polygons on an interactive  Geoboard. 

 

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3.  Explore polygons interactively at Polygon Playground.

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4.  Practice identifying polygons at home.  Be ready for your next quiz by playing Polygon game I and Poygon game II .

 

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5.  Make your own tangrams interactively.

 Additional Resources for Teachers

1.  How to use manipulatives like geoboards, tangrams, and pattern blocks when teaching geometry to upper elementary students.

2.  Learn about tiling and tesselations. Experiment with symmetric sketching using Kali.

3.  Students practice identifying geometric shapes and then go on a real world Geometry Scavenger Hunt.

Second Grade Addition and Subtraction

Published by Nicole on July 15, 2009 in summermath, math and teaching. 0 Comments

Want to jazz up your 2nd grade math class?  Here are suggestions for addition and subtraction books, kid’s websites and additional resources.  This blog covers addition and subtraction fact families to 20, finding sums, differences, solving one and two step problems and showing their inverse relationship.

Amazing Math Books!

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The Grapes of Math by Greg Tang, illustrated by Harry Briggs

With clever riddles, your students will become clever math whizzes.  Illustrated riddles introduce strategies for solving a variety of addition and subtraction problems in using visual clues.  The answers to the riddles are in the back of the book.

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George Washington’s Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora, illustrated by Brock Cole

A rollicking rhyme portrays George Washington’s lifelong struggle with bad teeth. A timeline taken from diary entries and other nonfiction sources follows.  Students can work on subtraction while learning about hygiene and history.

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Shark Swimathon by Stuart J. Murphy, illustrated by Lynne Cravath

Swimming subtraction is just a part of the fun when these sharks need to swim 75 laps by the end of the week to make it to the state swim camp.  Besides straight subtraction problems, they need to work together to meet their goal.

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Math Fables Too by Greg Tang, illustrated by Taia Morley

While learning about animals and their habits, work on math fact families up to 10.  Greg Tang describes the animals’ activities while showing addition facts.  He includes descriptions of sea horses, koalas, dolphins, chimpanzees and more!

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Hippos Go Berserk! by Sandra Boynton

A hilarious portrayal of what happens when hippos get together for a party.  It is a good presentation of addition and subtraction relationships.

Exciting websites for kids!

Ten Frame:

Students play a game with a ten frame and chips where they can choose to play “How many?” “Build,” “Fill,” “Add,” and “Play All.”  These games work on sums, differences, and recognizing numbers.

Math Curse Hidden Picture Game:

Everyone loves the book, Math Curse.  Students practice their addition and subtraction skills while trying to correctly answer the questions to reveal the hidden picture.

Two Player Math Adding:

Students play against each other while adding single and double digit sums.  A crazy looking mathematician narrates and scores are kept.

Ghost Blasters:

Students try to blast away ghosts while practicing sums up to 50.  You can change the sum which with they try to blast the ghost.  Great sound effects and animation.

Can you balance?

Virtual Unifix cubes sit on scale waiting to be balanced.  Students pick from the possible answers to add the correct amount to the unbalanced tray.  They can work on seeing what addend pairs equal the same sums.

Additional Teacher Resources:

Face Off!

Great addition practice for students to play together using manupulatives.  Downloadable directions and material templates included. Good game for a math center or to use during a lesson.

Need virtual manipulatives for your class room computers?

Download the Base Blocks, Base Block Addition, Base Block Subtraction, Diffy, and Number Line Arithmetic.  They are interactive and presented clearly.

More literature and lesson plan ideas!

Look at the suggestions for the books Ten Apples up on Top by Theo LeSieg and Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews.  Work on Ten Frames and Part-Part-Total. It’s practice for forming numbers and math sentences.

Runaway Math Puzzle!

Use this template to make your own cool math puzzle. It is set up like a crossword puzzle, but with addition or subtraction sentences.  The templates are midway down the page.