This is a delightfully illustrated book that centers around a small red brick who grows up and tries to find her place in the world. She travels to lands near and far searching for a structure that she fits into. She visits castles and famous buildings and walls, searching for the place that feels like home. I won’t spoil the book and tell you where she ends up, but it is a lovely story about belonging and life. It is not necessarily obvious where the math come into play in this book, but it jumped out at me when mathematical vocabulary was used to describe the brick (small), the buildings (tall) and other math vocabulary words such as same, different, wide, etc. In addition, the illustrations lend themselves to talking about similarities and differences, size, shape and number.

This is a deep and thoughtful book that is perfect for a quiet time during the day or evening when you and your child(ren) have time to really examine the illustrations and talk not only about mathematical concepts, but about doing great things, being brave and belonging.

The second book is a classic children’s book written by Bill Martin and illustrated by Eric Carle called Polar Bear Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? This book is a delightful companion to their book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? 

Polar Bear Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? is a classic pattern book. A pattern book is typically a book with few sentences on each page that has a very repetitive and predictable sequence to it. This allows children to be able to anticipate what the next word of a sentence is because it is repeated throughout the book. The book starts with a Polar Bear who is asked “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear?” The polar bear then states that he hears a “lion roaring in my ear.” The lion is then asked what he hears and he tells us…. and so on. Children easily begin to predict that each of the animals will be asked what they hear…using the same simple words each time.

How does this help children with mathematical thinking? The answer is PATTERNS! The repetitive nature and predictability of the story helps children begin to acquire the important skills of predicting and hypothesizing. To start to predict what comes next is an important math skill. Recognizing patterns provides the foundation for being able to make predictions based on observation of the repetition of patterns and, as children grow in their mathematical skills, later make predictions based on data.

I hope you will enjoy reading these two books to your child(ren) and that you will continue to find books that foster mathematical thinking and skills. Please share your favorite books with us in the comments and tell us how they help children develop mathematical skills!

There are two rather sophisticated, fun and fantastic books that I want to tell you about this week.

The first is a book written by Barbara Kanninen and illustrated by Serge Bloch called Circle Rolls.

The main character in this book is a spunky, bespectacled Circle. That’s right, a circle—and all kinds of funny things happen when Circle starts to roll.

As Circle rolls, he smacks into Oval, who rocks because he is not perfectly round, and Square, who sits because his sides are straight. As Rectangle is bumped into, he stands and, as Triangle is smacked, he points. Then, as Circle hits the point of the Triangle, he POPS!  All kinds of crazy things happens when Circle pops and, soon, other shapes get involved.

This book is perfect for talking about the attributes of each of the shapes (the circle is round, the triangle has three sides and three points, etc.) In addition, the words rhyme. Rhyming helps children experience the rhythm of language. Through rhyming, they can anticipate the rhyming word, which will help them with making hypotheses, or predictions—an important early math and science skill.

My three-year-old grandson, Charlie, loves me to read this book with him—and we both laugh a lot when that circle POPS! Laughing and learning at the same time is a fantastic way to spend an early morning story time.

The second book is about a bunch of party-loving hippos called Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton.

Hippos Go Berserk starts with one hippo sitting all alone who calls two hippo friends to come over. Those hippos bring other friends and the party begins as the house fills up with hippos playing, partying and working.

They go BERSERK having a fantastic time all night long. When dawn breaks, the hippos start to leave in groups until just the one hippo is left, missing the other 44 that were with him all night long.

This is a great book for practicing counting, composing (adding) and decomposing (subtracting). It is also a just a fantastically fun book that children and adults of all ages love.

I highly recommend these two fabulous, fun and fantastic books that will leave you and your children laughing while you learn!

Visualizing large numbers, understanding fractions, having fun with division, or just fine-tuning how you approach problems – all of these books present fun and winning ways to bring math into your children’s lives.

How Much is a Million by Stephen Kellogg

Master children’s book writer Stephen Kellogg’s book has been making large numbers understandable to young readers for generations, and is still the best book out there for visualizing them in an accessible way. No one who has ever read this book will forget that if a billion kids made a human tower it would reach past the moon.

The Pancake Menu by Lucy Ravitch

Lucy Ravitch, who blogs at Kids Math Teacher, has created a winning combination of cooking and eating out in this book aimed at getting kids comfortable with adding costs. It encourages readers to make their own fun pancake creations and figure out how much customers would have to pay if they were running their own at-home restaurant. An imaginative, active good time.

Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neuschwander

Clever all around, this title by Cindy Neuschwander is a rarity – a math picture book with a really great and memorable story. It is a smart take on an inventive side story of the Arthurian saga, about King Arthur’s quest to find a table that can accommodate all of his squabbling knights. If you love it, Sir Cumference and the First Round Table is the first in a series.

Which One Doesn’t Belong? by Christopher Danielson

This brilliant new book by math educator Christopher Daniels, of Talking Math With Your Kids fame is less about teaching right answers than about getting children to ask the right questions. On each page, readers are invited to pick the shape that doesn’t belong and talk about why they picked that shape. But there is not correct answer – just an opportunity to talk about how we think. A must-have.

What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada

It’s a shame that when we talk about solving math equations we equate it with a “problem.” However, this charming and emboldening book What Do You Do With A Problem? by Kobi Yamada. A dark, splotchy problem follows around the unnamed character and haunts his days until he decides to face it head-on. Along the way, this endearing story shows that maybe the problem wasn’t as scary as he thought after all.

The Best of Times by Greg Tang

Greg Tang has a number of math picture books out, but I like this one best. In it, he provides simple instruction for multiplying numbers. Here’s a choice example: “Four is very fast to do, / when you multiply by 2. / Here’s a little good advice – / please just always double twice!”

What’s New at the Zoo by Suzanne Slade

It’s a simple premise: A visit to the zoo yields possibilities for learning how to add. Four monkeys are all carrying babies – how many monkeys are there? What’s New at the Zoo is perfect for early math learners because of how simple it’s questions are and how it engages readers in a real-world problem. Add to that perfect rhyming and some cute pictures and you have the perfect addition to your library.

Full House: An Invitation to Fractions by Dayle Ann Dodds

Dayle Ann Dodds makes this list twice. In Full House, she wraps two learning stories in one book with the tale of Miss Bloom, the proprietor of an inn with six rooms. As guests arrive, Miss Bloom calculates how many of the rooms have been filled. Later, they all share a cake cut into six equal pieces. The illustrations are charming, the lesson spot-on, and the characters funny as can be.

The Great Divide: By Dayle Ann Dodds

When 100 people set out on a marathon, some of them don’t finish in this rousing story by Dayle Ann Dodds. More a concept book than a memorization story, The Great Divide follows the marathoners as, on each spread, half of them encounter a challenges taking them out of the race. In the end, there can be only one – but getting there is the fun in this book.

That’s a Possibility: A Book about What Might Happen by Bruce Goldstone

Some math concepts have as much to do with learning the meaning of words as anything else. Enter That’s A Possibility, a book that teaches students about the subtle differences in the language of possibilities. In popping, colorful illustrations, it leads young readers through a series of situations, defining the terms possible, probable, impossible, and certain along the way. Possibly a must for Christmas?

Tana Hoban is one of my favorite children’s authors and I always use her collection to show my students that nonfiction children’s books are as interesting and engaging to young children as story books are.Tana Hoban’s books are filled with beautiful photographs of real people and real things that children will both recognize as familiar and those that are not.  The titles range from Let’s Count to So Many Circles, So Many Squares  and Exactly the Opposite to More, Fewer, Less.

If you’ve never checked out Tana Hoban’s books, you really should.  Most, if not all, are available in the public library, but I have also found them in soft cover for under $10.00 and used for as little as a dollar.  These books would make a great addition to bolstering the math opportunities in your classroom.