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3 - 5 Geometric Thinking - Children's Literature

  • The greedy triangle (ENC-009717) This book, part of the Marilyn BURNS BRAINY DAY BOOK SERIES, invites children in grades K to 5 to wonder about what happens to shapes as they get more sides and more angles. This book introduces children to the names and shapes of the polygons. From a dissatisfied triangle to a dissatisfied pentagon, the book traces various places where each shape appears in real life. Dissatisfaction leads the shapes to develop additional sides and angles; however, after the triangle has become a many-sided shape, it discovers the liabilities associated with having many sides. In a section at the end of each book are explanations of the mathematics underlying the story, suggestions for ways to involve children with math, and questions to engage children in talking about their ideas.

  • Measuring Penny (ENC-012084) This illustrated oversize book for grades 2 to 4 tells the story of Lisa and her homework assignment to measure something in several different ways. She has to use standard units, such as inches, and nonstandard units, such as paper clips, to find the height, width, length, weight, volume, temperature, and time. Lisa decides to measure her dog Penny and discovers a lot about her dog and about measuring. This book contains colorful illustrations and information about many different dog breeds. Methods of measuring quantities, including volume and weight, are clearly presented along with a story line that has some humor.

  • Shape up! (ENC-014715) This oversize picture book for students preK to grade 3 presents activities with cheese slices, pretzel sticks, a slice of bread, graph paper, a pencil and more to introduce polygons, 2-D shapes with varying numbers of straight sides. The pages of this book show how to carry out the activities with illustrations in bright primary colors. In a sample activity, students are directed to draw triangles on a sheet of paper and then shown how to use the paper right angle measure (made by folding in a previous activity) to find any right angles in the drawn triangles. The activity continues with the introduction of the terms obtuse and acute and further explorations of angles. The last page of the book is a glossary of all the mathematical terms found in the book.

  • Sir Cumference and the first round table : a math adventure (ENC-009844) This illustrated children's book emphasizes problem solving, shape, and mathematical vocabulary. King Arthur, fearing that his neighbors, the Circumscribers, might be preparing to make war, calls upon his most trusted knights to develop a plan of action. On the first day of their meetings the knights are seated at a long rectangular table. In order to improve communication, the knights, including Sir Cumference, King Arthur, and the king's carpenter, Geo of Metry, try several different table shapes, tackling a variety of problems along the way. In the end, a round table is found to be most suitable.

  • Round table geometry (ENC-009781) This teacher's guide can be used to reinforce the geometric concepts presented in the illustrated children's book, Sir Cumference and The First Round Table. This guide includes ideas for promoting connections between literature and mathematics, activities for manipulating and measuring shapes, and problem solving investigations.

  • Twelve snails to one lizard : a tale of mischief and measurement (ENC-016339) This illustrated book, for young readers in preK to grade 2, tells the story of Bubba Bullfrog as he helps Milo the beaver build a dam by explaining to him the concepts of inches, feet, and yards. Bubba explains to Milo that an inch is about as long as a snail and a foot is about as long as a lizard. Using these ideas Bubba and Milo proceed to patch the hole in the dam so that all the rainwater does not run off and leave the pond dry for the summer. The last page of this book offers measurement facts about the animals in the book, including the fact that, in Montana, there is a beaver dam that is 2,140 feet long.

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Last modified January 18, 2001(ljl)