Monday Math Literature Volume 11

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This week's Math Literature Monday is all about BIG NUMBERS!  I use these books with kids from K-6 because I find kids of all ages who are very interested in learning more about big numbers.  In the common core, first graders are responsible for numbers up to 120 and second graders are supposed to be comfortable up to 1000.  Older kids are responsible for more numbers.  That is what the common core says.  What I know is that all kids are interested in learning big numbers.  These books can both help motivate your students to learn more about numbers and help to build a lifetime enjoyment of mathematics.

On Beyond a Million: An Amazing Math Journey

This book is written in comic book format.  In the story, a popcorn machine has gone crazy and a group of kids are trying to count all the kernels and can't keep up.  They are introduced to the idea of power counting, 1, 10, 100, 1000 etc.  This book in is in a fun format and really draws kids in.  It also gets to numbers past one million and probably has more numbers than you know the names of.  It is super engaging and I most often use this book in grades 2 and up

Another story about bigger numbers (although not as big!)  that is great to use with kids from K up is

Count To A Million

   

     I think this book is currently out of print but I found several nice used copies on Amazon.  This book shows what each base 10 number would look like in terms of bugs or people or grains of sand.  It is great at giving kids a frame of reference for just how large these numbers are.  I find myself going to this book over and over again when I am trying to get kids to see how big these numbers are and how much bigger (or smaller!) they are than other numbers. 

Do you have a favorite story that you use for talking with students about really big numbers?

Click here to head to Volume 12!