Math Picture Books for K-5

     This past summer I renewed my passion for teaching by attending Daytona Beach's National Writing Project at Bethune Cookman's College.  While I was researching teaching methods to improve my student's academic achievement, I discovered how children's math picture books provide a visual memory hook.  Further reading explained how stories tap into student's intuitions and help them to connect their life to school math.  I decided to integrate math literature regularly as a hook for new math concepts.  

     This school year I am teaching K-5 math intervention classes which rotate every 50 minutes.  After my first day of classes overlapping, a profound level of respect for special area teachers grew within my heart.  Forty minutes seems inadequate for a thought provoking math lesson much less time to incorporate a story.  Realizing the tight schedule of curriculum maps, I somewhat reluctantly carved out time for my students to engage with math in a fun and humorous way.  However past experience encourages me that sometimes we start slow to go fast later on.  

     Kindergarten starts off their school year learning about shapes.  "The Shape of Things" by Dayle Ann Dodds appealed to me because it shows how shapes are found in our environment.  The students find squares, rectangles, circles, and triangles hidden within colorful pictures.  My only concern with the book was a page about a diamond which I chose not to read.  As an intermediate teacher, I refuse to call a rhombus a diamond.  However, it is a worthy conversation for kindergarten teachers.  I was also appalled to find rectangles in online games and worksheets that are mislabeled as a square.  No wonder so many students do not understand a square has four equal sides.  

     First grade skills include counting using a number line, so I selected the book, "One Duck Stuck" by   Phyllis Root.  The website, K-5 teaching resources recommended the writing prompt: How many animals did it take to rescue the duck that got stuck in the muck?  After reading the story, I had to create an extensive number line across my entire chalkboard for all the animals. 

      I chose "The Napping House" by Audrey Wood because second grade is counting using double ten frames.  The writing prompt for this book was:  When all the sleepers were piled up, how many legs were in the bed?  Once again prepare to use multiple double ten frames to complete this activity. I was impressed that a little boy knew a flea had six legs.  Since this wasn't common knowledge for most students it was a great opportunity for my students to defend their mathematical reasoning.  

     For my third graders who are learning place value, I found "If You Made A Million Dollars" by David Schwartz.  This book helps children understand the value of money which can be connected to our place value system.  I tape a picture of the dollar bill representing each value on the place value chart.  As we read the book, the students write the costs of items representing each place value.  It is always fun to ask the students how many pages do they think we would need to draw 100,000 stars.  Then I show the book, "How Much is a Million?" to show a visual for 100,000.  It has seven pages of stars that add up to 100,000 which helps build the concept.  

     "Beyond A Million" by David Schwartz is a wonderful book for fourth graders because it teaches students to count by the powers of ten.  It really helps the students understand the difference between a unit and the place value to the right.  This counting book makes everyone realize our number system is based on multiples on ten.  

     My fifth graders are starting their year with a review of multiplication.  Since many students struggled with this concept last year I had them write the topics they found impossible to master on a notecard.  Then I described my math experiences as a child by sharing a funny multiplication poem that I wrote.  The students brainstormed more ideas to add to my "Multiplication Is Easy" poem and physically relaxed with this activity.  After reciting "Multiplication Is Easy" over and over in each stanza, the students began to hope.  They really believed me when I did the impossible and cut the notecard in a careful manner to create a large oval shape large enough for them to step through.  All of a sudden I had a group of fifth graders who were excited to attempt multiplication in new ways.