Mathematical activities which are linked to children's literature promote communication, logical thinking and reasoning. This integration of mathematics and children's literature enables young students to:

• make links between the world of mathematics and their own world;
• appreciate mathematics in a context other than drill and practice exercises;
• develop logical thought;
• provide an interesting context for problem solving;
• use their intuitive notions about mathematics;
• discuss, reflect, and increase their mathematical knowledge;
• use a mathematical vocabulary in a significant context.

• problem solving;
• counting (forward and backward);
• ordinal numbers;
• basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division);
• correspondence (1 to 1, etc.);
• estimation;
• fractions;
• large numbers;
• sorting and classifying;
• order (increasing and decreasing);
• patterns;
• geometric shapes;
• spatial orientation;
• days of the week;
• seasons;
• months of the year;
• time;
• size;
• measure (recipes);
• money;
• age;
• etc.

Anno, Masaichiro; Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar.

Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno's Counting Book. Thomas Crowell, 1977.

Aska, Warabé. Who hides in the park = Les mystères du parc. Tundra Books, 1986.

Birch, David. The King's Chessboard. 1988.

Bridwell, Norman. Clifford the Big Red Dog Scholastic, 1963.

Burningham, John. The Shopping Basket. Harper Junior Books, 1980.

Carrier, Roch. The Hockey Sweater.

Dale, Penny. Ten in the Bed. 1988.

Gag, Wanda. Millions of Cats.

Gilman, Phoebe. The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs. Scholastic, 1988.

Hoban, Tana. A,B,see! Greenwillow Books, 1982.

Hoban, Tana. Dots, Spots, Speckles, and Stripes. Greenwillow Books, 1987.

Hoban, Tana. Exactly the Opposite. Greenwillow Books, 1990.

Hoban, Tana. Is It Larger? Is It Smaller? Greenwillow Books, 1985.

Hoban, Tana. Look Up, Look Down. Greenwillow Books, 1992.

Hoban, Tana. Round & Round & Round. Greenwillow Books, 1983.

Hoban, Tana. Shadows and Reflections. Greenwillow Books, 1990.

Hoban, Tana. Shapes, Shapes, Shapes. Greenwillow Books, 1986.

Hutchins, Pat. The Doorbell Rang. Scholastic, 1988.

Hutchins, Pat. Changes, changes. Collier Macmillan Canada, 1971.

Jonas, Ann. Round Trip

Lionni, Leo.The largest House in the World.

Lobel, Arnold. Frog and Toad are Friends. The story entitled:"A Lost Button".

Munsch, Robert. David's Father.

Sheppard, Jeff. The Right Number of Elephants Scholastic, 1990.

Slobodkina, Esphyr. Caps for Sale.

Stinson, Kathy. Red is Best.

Viorst, Judith. Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday.

Watts, Franklin. Les formes. Éditions Gamma, 1986.

Wells, Rosemary. Max's Toys.

Suggestions from other people.

The following three books were suggested by Holly Tolman (SL6KC@cc.usu.edu), a student at Utah State University.

Myller, Rolf. How Big is a Foot? Ernest, Lisa Campbell. Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt. Schwartz, Bavid M. How Much is a Million?

We also received this note.

Greetings, just came upon your site looking for resources for my first grade daughter. I really loved your list of children's literature that have math themes. Here is another one to add to the list: Counting on Frank Author: Rod Clement North American Publisher: Gareth Stevens, Inc., 1555 North RiverCenter Drive, Suite 201, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA 53212 Published in North America 1991 Cute story about a boy, his dog named Frank, and the boy's unique way of looking at the world in mathematical terms. Lots of size perception, estimation, etc. Another nice book is Math Curse, but I don't have the complete information.

Professional Resources

Baker, Ann; Baker, Johnny. Mathematics in Process. Heinemann, 1990.

Griffiths, Rachel; Clyne, Margaret. Books You Can Count On. Linking Mathematics and Literature. Heinemann, 1988.

Mathematics and Children's Literature. Interactions. Ginn Publishing Canada, 1993.

Whitin, David; Mills, Heidi; O'Keefe. Living and Learning Mathematics. Heinemann, 1990.

Many articles in various publications of The Arithmetic Teacher.

Note

• This list will be updated periodically. If you know of any good book to use to teach mathematical concepts, please let us know.
• If you have ideas, problems and/or activities relating to the use of children's books, please share them, we will insert them in this article.
• You can send these to: Dr. J. H. Weston or Dr. D. Hanson, Mathematics and Statistics Department, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S 0A2; or you can e-mail these to: TheCentralizer@MathCentral.uregina.ca
  Should you care to send your submission on a diskette, it will be returned to you.