Genre: Math

Math is everywhere; from counting blocks, to telling time, the amounts of money we spend, balancing checkbooks, creating recipes and comparing interest rates.  Scholastic states: Evidence shows that teaching math through children’s books: motivates children to learn math in exciting new ways; encourages students to think and reason mathematically; and builds students’ appreciation for math and literature.  With more focus on integrating curriculum, it is the perfect time to add math books to your classroom library. The key is choosing the right book for your lesson.  Things to consider would be: accuracy, appeal, format and content.


My Favorite Picks:

Overdeck, L., & Paillot, J. (2013). Bedtime math. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

Grade Equivalent: 5.7
Complexity Band: 4-5

 A great book filled with authentic math stories.  The stories set the reader up for a challenging math question.  After each story there are three story problems.  Staggering from simple to challenging, the problems are labeled: wee ones, little kids and big kids.  This book is ideal for use in small differentiated math groups.  Groups could be divided by ability, the story could be read aloud to all students and then each group would be given a story problem at their ability level.  Bedtime Math, is suited for developed 2nd grade reader but story problems are tiered for younger students as well as older students.This is a very versatile text but will need scaffolding for underdeveloped readers.  Features of this book include: nice bold titles, stories on the left hand side with story problems on the right hand side of the page, questions also have a visual to show simple to challenging, answers are given at the bottom of each page and the actual equations to solve the story problems can be found in the back of the book.  This book is a great way to bring fun into the math classroom.

Pallotta, J., & Bolster, R. (1999). The Hershey's milk chocolate bar fractions book. New York: Scholastic.

Pallotta, J., & Bolster, R. (2002). The Hershey's Kisses subtraction book. New York: Scholastic.

Lexile: AD710L
Complexity Band: 2-3

I love the idea of using these books to introduce a new concept in math.  Of course it is appealing to students because it is all about candy and chocolates.  The book is filled with great illustrations of actual chocolates as manipulatives for the story problems.  I have actually seen the fraction book used in a classroom with students having their own chocolate bars to complete the equations in the story.  All students enjoyed the activity and it meets the needs of all learners: visual, auditory and tactile.  Features in this book include the math signs used within the story introduced with a visual and definition of what their function is.  The layout of these book progresses from easy to more challenging problems.  These books are designed to go along with the CGI process; builds on math and number sense not just standard algorithm.  Books are written at a 2nd to 3rd grade level but could be used as a Read Aloud for younger students.  With Hershey books covering addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions-they are a great resource for your math lessons.