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!

If we begin at the beginning  – the first book that comes to mind is The Cat in the Hat.  There are so many  mathematical concepts woven through the entire story that it would be impossible to read it without reinforcing the math.  By the time we meet Thing 1 and Thing 2, we have rhymed, predicted, repeated, and sequenced.  Thing 1 and Thing 2 are icing on the cake.

When I was little, my dad used to read Horton Hatches the Egg just before we went to sleep.  He would bring up carrot sticks and salt and fill our belly buttons with salt and we would dip our carrot sticks in the salt and munch away while he read.  I never knew how much that book stuck with me until years later when I saw a copy and I realized that I knew every word by heart.  I guess he read it a LOT.

Most of us have a Dr. Seuss memory. What is yours?

One mom reported that she had heard that children were supposed to identify a pair of “trousers” in a picture.  She felt that the word “trousers” is no longer used and her child was at a disadvantage because their family does not use that word at home.  Perhaps this is true.  I might argue that most of us no longer use the word trousers to describe pants.  We say “pants” or “jeans” or “corduroys.”  However, children who read a lot, are read to a lot and who are exposed to the world of books, will have a vocabulary that will eventually include words like “trousers.”  Books are important for language learning.

That brings me to books for math.  If approached with intention, children’s books are rich with mathematical concepts.  Some are obvious (Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed) and others have mathematical concepts embedded in the stories, through the use of patterns, rhythm, and predictability.

Nowhere is this more true than in Eric Carle books.

Take a look at this video and let us know what you think.  Watch how Ana reads “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and capitalizes on the mathematical concepts.  What do you think?

(The password for the video is Ana)