Children's Books with Counting Activities

Counting
Here are a few suggestions of books for bedtime reading that have a mathematics theme. Some ideas for activities to accompany these books are also given. By simply reading these books, parents and teachers can either introduce, support or review their children's understanding of fundamental mathematics concepts in a fun and engaging manner. This particular entry pertains to books about COUNTING from the Number Sense and Numeration strand.

How Many Snails? by Paul Giganti, Jr. The author asks students to wander along with him in the meadow. He asks questions on each page, such as, "How many flowers are in the meadow?" and "How many flowers are yellow?" It is a wonderful way to count as well as looking at different attributes. Activities *this book allows students to ask questions about pictures on the page. *you can make big books based on different themes, for example, "How Many Shells?"

Ten Apples Up On Top by Theodore Le Seig In this amusing counting book, three animals compete to have the most apples on top of their heads. Then the animals are chased by a variety of other animals, all of whom seem to want to take away the "ten apples up on top." Eventually everyone crashes into a huge apple cart, and after a page of chaos, everyone has "ten apples up on top." Activities This book can be used in a variety of ways to promote number concept, sets, sorting, and graphing.

Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews
What can you do with ten black dots? "One dot can make a sun or a moon when day is done. Two dots can make the eyes of a fox...". Count all the way to ten with Donald Crews and delight in the simple rhymes, everyday objects, and stunning graphics of a master of the picture concept book.

Two Ways to Count to Ten, a Liberian folktale retold by Ruby Dee Leopard The king of all the other animals, holds a contest to find a successor. The challenge: throw a spear into the air and count to ten before it hits the ground. No matter how strong the animal is he can't throw the spear high enough or count quickly enough. Finally, clever antelope wins by counting to ten by twos.

The Napping House by Audrey Wood This delightful cumulative tale has been a favorite with readers and listeners since its debut. It's a rainy afternoon and Granny is snoring on the bed in a cozy room. A child crawls on top of her and dreams. Gradually, the pile increases with a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering mouse and finally a wakeful flea who, by biting the mouse, sets off a chain of events which results in a broken pile and even a broken bed. Each page repeats the action from bottom up. Activities For mathematics activities you can count the critters, add more and keep counting. You have diminishing size. Can you put the sleepers in another setting? What diminishing sizes would you have in the ocean? a desert? a jungle?

12 Ways to get to 11 by Eve Merriam This book uses ordinary experiences to present twelve combinations of numbers that add up to eleven. Example: At the circus, six peanut shells and five pieces of popcorn.

How Many Feet in the Bed by Diane Johnston Hamm One by one, a little girl, her brother, baby sister, and mother all join Dad in bed. This makes "ten feet in the bed." And then, one by one, each family member leaves the snug bed to start the day, and only a sleepy teddy bear remains behind. Each double-page illustration captures the happiness of the family and this cozy Sunday morning. For easy counting by readers, the feet are always visible but not obtrusive. Drawn in pastels or colored pencil, the realistic pictures are the book's most prominent and distinctive feature.

Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges Breaking up the deep grays, purples and the black of night with incandescent spots of light, the illustrator of this imaginatively conceived book captures the magic of summer evenings and the mysterious glow of fireflies. These marvelous creatures of nature, meanwhile, are deployed in debut author Sturges's poetic counting lesson. "What do we see in the summer night?/ Ten flashing fireflies burning bright!/ Catch the one twinkling there/ Like a star./ One flashing firefly in our jar." A brother and sister add nine more fireflies to their collection; later, in their bedroom, they free the fireflies when their light begins to fade, counting down from 10 to one as the insects escape through the window and begin to glow again.

Ten Sly Piranhas by William Wise Wise's provocative subtitle translates to a sort of "Ten in a Bed" of the deep, wherein the protagonists devour one another until the last succumbs to a hungry croc.