Literature is needed everywhere. It can be used in any content area and nearly every concept or lesson can be found in some type of text. It expands a student’s vocabulary, contains meaningful context to curriculum, encourages deep thought and reasoning, and encourages interaction to list a few benefits.
A majority of learning for young children stems from children’s picture books. It allows them to see the things they cannot yet read. It allows them to experience new events or build bridges to their life and the outside world. Throughout my years as a student, student teacher, and Pre-K assistant, I have seen literature being used with every subject except math.
I never would’ve thought to bring children’s books into math until I stumbled across this book.
I stumbled across this book when looking for lessons ideas on teaching shapes to my preschoolers. The Greedy Triangleby Marilyn Burns is about a greedy triangle who visits a shapeshifter. The shapeshifters continues adding angles to the triangle, transforming him into different polygons. It was a great introduction into how shapes can transform into other ones.
Watch this two minute video as Ms. Surita teaches her students about math concepts with a Pete the Cat book.
A large reason as to why teachers leave literature out of math is because they don’t know what books to use. Luckily, The Best Children’s Book found them for you.
They break their books down into academic area, reading level, topics, and a store with the resources. There are tons of math concepts listed from counting to geometry. You are sure to find a book for any content you need. The greatest part is each book has sentence summary of what it’s about and the specific concept it teaches. Plus there is a grade level range! This makes skimming easier.
Add children’s literature into your next math lesson! The benefits are endless and your students will be begging you for more math time.