Series: Book Ideas
Book Ideas for Early Math Learning
This series of book ideas encourage using stories to infuse the early years with mathematical learning. From the infant years until they are putting together more advanced numeracy concepts in elementary school, books can be a gateway for early math discussions.
Below find all the resources we have placed in our series titled BOOK IDEAS.
Series: Book Ideas
5 Kids’ Books that Involve Sets and Sorting
December 11, 2019
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: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags Cynthia Weill, Stuart J Murphy, Emily Jenkins, A Pair of Socks, Exactly the Opposite, Opuestos/Opposites, Five Creatures, Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue?, Lois Ehlert, Tana Hoban, Family Math
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…
- Topic: Pattern
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade
- Tags Graeme Base, Demi, We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past, The Waterhole, Two of Everything, One Grain of Rice, Lily Toy Hong, Animals, Culture, Jacqueline Woodson
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…
- Topic: Precursor Concepts, Shape
- Age/Grade Level: Infants, Toddlers, Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade
- Tags Now What? A Math Tale, Robie H. Harris, Tana Hoban, Attribute, Shapes Shapes Shapes
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…
- Topic: Data Analysis
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade
- Tags Mitsumasa Anno, Anno’s Flea Market, Which Would You Rather Be?, William Steig, Whose Shoes?, Stephen R. Swinburne, Graphing, Shoes, Comparing
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: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade
- Tags Trudy Harris, Audrey Wood, Pattern Bugs, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?, I Went Walking, The Napping House, Sue Williams, Animals, Eric Carle, Bill Martin Jr.
Series: Book Ideas October 22, 2018
A Holiday with Too Many Tamales
How is it possible to have too many tamales? Well, Maria finds out in the holiday storybook Too Many Tamales by author Gary Soto.
- Topic: Number Operations
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
- Tags Books, Gary Soto, Family Math, Too Many Tamales, Seasonal, Food, Holiday
Series: Book Ideas September 11, 2018
3 "Mathical" Books for More Advanced Counting
Along with being "mathical" award winners, these books provide compelling contexts that help primary grade children understand why more advanced counting is useful and that it isn’t always efficient to count by ones.
- Topic: Counting
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
- Tags Kate Banks, One Big Pair of Underwear, Laura Gehl, Sheep Won’t Sleep, Judy Cox, Max’s Math
Series: Book Ideas March 22, 2018
3 "Mathical" Counting Books with Winning Appeal
The Mathical Book Prize is an annual award organized by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI). With an aim to "inspire a love of mathematics in the everyday world in children of all ages," the winners…
- Topic: Counting
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade
- Tags Mac Barnett, 8: An Animal Alphabet, Elisha Cooper, Baby Goes to Market, Atinuke, Count the Monkeys
Series: Book Ideas January 10, 2018
3 Children’s Books that Build an Understanding of Equivalency
Long before young children are writing equations with the equal sign, they are exploring how amounts that look different can actually be equivalent.
- Topic: Number Sense, Number Operations
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade
- Tags Eve Merriam, April Pulley Sayre, Balancing Act, Twelve Ways to Get to Eleven, One is a Snail Ten is a Crab, Books, Equivalence, Ellen Stoll Walsh
Series: Book Ideas October 24, 2017
5 Children’s Books About Food for the Holiday Season
The holiday season usually brings with it any number of family dinners and communal feasts. For young children, this is a great time to engage in math.
Learn from the experts
Our 2023 Summer Learning series provides in-depth learning for educators and teacher educators.
