Foundational Math Topics
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Series: Book Ideas
Book ideas for using stories to infuse the early years with mathematical learning.
Series: Book Ideas
3 Children’s Books Where Small Numbers Matter
August 11, 2020
As children start using number words, they don’t always have a sense of what those words really mean. Early on, we guide children to develop a meaningful number sense by focusing on small numbers.
- Topic: Number Sense
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Family Math, More Fewer Less, Pat Mora, Sergio Ruzzier, Subitizing, Tana Hoban, Two Mice, Uno Dos Tres/One Two Three
Series: Book Ideas March 24, 2020
At-Home Activity Cards: Counting
Activities related to counting books can spark a lot of conversation and creativity. These English and Spanish-language activity cards are great for printing and using at home and school.
- Topic: Counting
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo: A Counting Book, Anno’s Counting Book, Count and See, Count Me In!, Count!, Cynthia Weill, Denise Fleming, Donald Crews, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Eric Carle, Fish Eyes, Lois Ehlert, Mitsumasa Anno, Mouse Count, Tana Hoban, Ten Black Dots
Series: Book Ideas March 23, 2020
At-Home Activity Cards: Shapes
Books can illustrate kindergarten and preschool shape concepts while introducing foundational Big Ideas of math. These activity cards can help take the learning to the home environment where parents and caregivers can spark such discussion.
- Topic: Shape
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Color Farm, Color Zoo, Cubes Cones Cylinders & Spheres, Lois Ehlert, Roseanne Thong, Round as a Tortilla, Shapes Shapes Shapes, Tana Hoban
Series: Book Ideas March 22, 2020
At-Home Activity Cards: Sets and Sorting
These printable activity cards in both English and Spanish invite home explorations with sets and sorting using the books and activities related to them. The books can encourage conversations about attributes while also inspiring questions about what is happening from page to page.
- Topic: Sets
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags A Pair of Socks, Cynthia Weill, Emily Jenkins, Exactly the Opposite, Five Creatures, Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue?, Opuestos/Opposites, Stuart J Murphy, Tana Hoban
Series: Book Ideas January 8, 2020
8 Counting Books For School and Home That Tackle Big Ideas
To encourage and develop children’s counting knowledge, here are eight books (with an accompanying download) that are common to preschool classrooms.
- Topic: Counting
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags ¡Cuenta Conmigo!, 1 2 3 to the Zoo, Animals, Anno’s Counting Book, Books, Count and See, Count Me In!, Count!, Cynthia Weill, Denise Fleming, Donald Crews, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Eric Carle, Fish Eyes, Lois Ehlert, Mitsumasa Anno, Mouse Count, Tana Hoban, Ten Black Dots
Series: Book Ideas December 11, 2019
5 Kids’ Books that Involve Sets and Sorting
Children look for ways to organize and make sense of their world through play at school and home, as well as at clean-up time. Sorting items into groups by specific attributes gives children the opportunity to define sets according to a rule of what does and does not belong together.
- Topic: Sets
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags A Pair of Socks, Cynthia Weill, Emily Jenkins, Exactly the Opposite, Family Math, Five Creatures, Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue?, Lois Ehlert, Opuestos/Opposites, Stuart J Murphy, Tana Hoban
Series: Book Ideas August 28, 2019
5 Books and Songs for Exploring Growing Patterns
Cumulative tales and rhymes illustrate growing patterns, typically an increase or decrease by one on each page. As the growing pattern is revealed through the story, children get excited because they can figure out "what comes next."
- Topic: Pattern
- Age/Grade Level: 1st Grade, Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Animals, Culture, Demi, Graeme Base, Jacqueline Woodson, Lily Toy Hong, One Grain of Rice, The Waterhole, Two of Everything, We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past
Series: Book Ideas July 29, 2019
Different Types of Shapes and Nonexamples to Spark Geometric Learning
It’s up to us to find, share, and talk about a variety of shapes with children in ways that expand their understanding and build connections between the shapes drawn on paper and the concrete objects in our world.
- Topic: Shape
- Age/Grade Level: 0-3, 1st Grade, Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Attribute, Now What? A Math Tale, Robie H. Harris, Shapes Shapes Shapes, Tana Hoban
Series: Book Ideas March 24, 2019
3 Books That Encourage Simple Graph Explorations with Young Ones
At the heart of it, graphing in the early years is about quantifying information in order to answer a question. That requires children to organize data in some visible way so that comparisons and generalizations are possible.
- Topic: Data Analysis
- Age/Grade Level: 1st Grade, Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Anno’s Flea Market, Comparing, Graphing, Mitsumasa Anno, Shoes, Stephen R. Swinburne, Which Would You Rather Be?, Whose Shoes?, William Steig
Series: Book Ideas January 11, 2019
4 Fun Books that Explore Math, Patterns, and Sequences
From an early age, children notice and appreciate patterns in the world around them. Patterns and sequences of different kinds begin to pop up all over the place, especially in the books that children love.
- Topic: Pattern
- Age/Grade Level: 1st Grade, Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Animals, Audrey Wood, Bill Martin Jr., Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?, Eric Carle, I Went Walking, Pattern Bugs, Sue Williams, The Napping House, Trudy Harris
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