Monday Math Literature Volume 31

If you missed last week's post about a great book to add some fun to your math class, you can read more about it here.

In former additions of Monday Math Literature I have written about one of the books I use to introduce multiplication and today I want to show you a few others.  

Arctic Fives Arrive

This is a great book that is all about skip counting by 5's.  I use this with Kindergarten and first grade children when i work on counting by 5's but I also love using it in second and third grade as a way to connect skip counting to multiplication.  Different types of animals keep arriving in groups of 5.  Most of my second and third graders are already familiar with this book from earlier grades and love revisiting it in the context of learning a new skill.  They are so excited by the fact that they already knew a little about multiplication because they can skip count.  

What Comes in 2's, 3's & 4's?

 

The first model I use with kids when we start learning multiplication is an equal groups model.  This book shows many things that come in groups of 2's, 3's and 4's.  This is a great book to read and start thinking about problems.  I like to model coming up with a few problems like there are 6 chairs, how many legs?  Then I let kids share equal group problems based on other objects in the book.

Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream 

This is another Marilyn Burns Brainy Day Book.  All of the books in this series are excellent!  This is the story of a girl named Amanda who is really good at counting.  She counts all the time.  Her class just started learning about multiplication.  She worries that she doesn't know her multiplication facts.  The book is full of pictures of arrays which are a super important model for kids who are learning multiplication.  There are also equal group models.  Amanda works on counting these items and begins to realize that multiplication might be faster.  I love how this book connects counting and multiplication.  There is also two pages at the end of the book that show kids, parents and teachers how to extend the math found in the story.  If I only could own one book to use when teaching multiplication, this would be it.

What books do you use to teach multiplication?

Head over to volume 32 to read more about my favorite counting books.