When I stumbled upon the math picture book, The Grapes of Math by Greg Tang and Harry Briggs, I was more than a little impressed.
This book has three great elements:
- Bright, simple and very fun images
- Catchy rhyming riddles
- Opportunities to teach perceptual and conceptual subitizing like crazy!
The images are colorful and fun!
The first thing you see in this math picture book are the bright but simple images. Looking at them you feel like you’ve stepped into the surreal world of those old View-Master reels.
The rhymes are catchy and cute!
I’m all about iambic pentameter. Well, I really don’t know exactly what that is, but it sounds like it means bouncy poetry.
And that’s what this math picture book has!
While scallops on the beach look great,
I’d rather see them on my plate.
Unfortunately it’s their loss,
They swim their best in butter sauce.
Oh, but the counting’s even better!
Each page has objects (fruit, bugs, dice, etc.) spread out so that children can experiment with different ways to “see” how many there are. You can subitize, group, multiply, subtract – or do them all!
The answer key in the back helps you understand the intent of the authors.
But I recommend you try various ways yourself before turning to the back. Some of their methods were very different than what I came up with.
And you can try it at home!
There are 16 different pictures and riddles to practice on. But it doesn’t have to stop there.
You can do your own playing at home. Check out the grapes I did here:
How will you use the math picture book, The Grapes of Math?
You might also like:
- What is Subitizing?
- Why Learning to Subitize Is Important
- How to Teach Subitizing: 1 – 4
- Early Childhood Math Teaching Tips Roundup
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