The Elementary Math Maniac: Monday Math Literature Volume 54

This week, I want to share with you a great book for using with primary children.

I own several books by Donald Crews but I think this one is my favorite. It is great to use for an introduction to subitizing and ten frames. The story starts at 1 and goes up to 10, showing several things you can do with that many black dots. This is a great book to read and stop between every few numbers and see what ideas kids come up with for that many black dots. You can also give them 10 black dots and see what they can come up with.

This is a great book to use at the beginning of the year to introduce ten frames. I recently made myself a huge magnetic 10 frame to use this year. I think it is really going to add a lot to this lesson! It was super easy to make and cost about $1.

I was going to measure everything out but instead decided to use what I know about partitioning rectangles and apply my own advice that I give to fourth and fifth graders when we are learning about fractions.

I cut the rectangle in half horizontally.

Then vertically, I found half and went a bit to the left from there. This leaves a large rectangle and a small rectangle. I then cut the small rectangle in half and the large rectangle into thirds.

The finished product! Doesn't this look great! I don't think I could have done better if I measured. The best part is that it took about 2 minutes!

I used black button magnets to be the black dots. If you want fancier dots, you can use Mod Podge to stick pictures, or decorative paper to the magnetic buttons.

I can't wait to use this with my kids!

Here are some of the other 10 and 20 frames I use with my students. I like to switch things up once in a while to keep things fresh for the students!