From Peasant to Princess: A Standards Conversion Story with a Twist

Abstract

The first author, a student in a graduate children’s literature class, designed a project to locate “good” mathematics-based children’s literature selections. However, the reference tools usually consulted (e.g., Books in Print) to locate books by topic were of little help, and those she located under individual mathematics topics were mostly traditional mathematics books rather than good read-aloud selections. Consequently, she perused the university library’s sizeable juvenile collection to find books that would meet her selection criteria. This article describes the influence of two landmark documents for mathematics teaching and learning—Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 1989) and Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000)—as she engaged in the process.

Appendices

Appendix A: Resources for Using Children’s Literature in Mathematics a Brief Annotated Listing

I spent time with the two starred items because they were immediately available. All the references on the list were recommended by Dr. Eula E. Monroe, the second author of this article, and should help to guide my ongoing work on this project.

Evans, C. W., Leija, A. J., & Falkner, T. R. (2001). Math links: Teaching the NCTM 2000 standards through children’s literature. Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press.

Includes a total of 36 mathematics lessons organized around the 10 mathematics standards from Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000). For each lesson, a children’s literature selection serves as a context for the mathematics to be learned, with a bibliography of additional children’s literature selections to be used.

Thiessen, D. (Ed.) (2004). Exploring mathematics through literature: Articles and lessons for prekindergarten through grade 8. Reston, VA: National Council Teachers of Mathematics.

A compilation of articles published in Teaching Children Mathematics, Arithmetic Teacher, and Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School regarding using literature to teach mathematics. The articles are organized according to five content strands of mathematics and give examples of lesson plans and approaches to be used.

*Theissen, D. O., & Matthias, M. (Eds.) (1998). The wonderful world of mathematics: A critically annotated list of children’s books in mathematics (2nd ed.). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Reviews more than 550 trade books in mathematics for preschool through grade 6. Each review describes the content of the book, illustrations, writing style, and whether activities for the reader were included. Books are rated according to usefulness in teaching mathematics concepts: highly recommended, recommended, acceptable, or not recommended. Reviews are grouped as follows: Early Number Concepts; Number Extensions and Connections; Measurement; Geometry and Spatial Sense; and Series and Other Resources.

Whitin, D. J., & Whitin, P. (2004). New visions for linking literature and mathematics. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Explores the use of books for both literary and mathematical purposes. Provides criteria for choosing mathematics-related literature, lists age-appropriate books, and includes a listing of mathematics concepts and related books that provide contexts for teaching these concepts.

Whitin, D. J., & Wilde, S. (1992). Read any good math lately? Children’s books for mathematical learning, K-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Suggests children’s literature selections, including both fiction and nonfiction, that support various mathematical topics. Examples of teachers at various grade levels using these books in their integration of mathematics into the whole of the classroom learning experience are provided.

*Whitin, D. J., & Wilde, S. (1995). It’s the story that counts: More children’s books for mathematical learning, K-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

A sequel to the authors’ 1992 publication. However, instead of being organized around mathematical topics, it is divided into two major parts: "Part 1, Children, Teachers, and Authors, is about the people who use mathematically oriented children’s books and two of the authors who create them.... Part 2, Books, Books, and More Books, focuses on the books themselves" (p. xiii). Included in the second part are discussions of books on various topics that were not treated, or treated less thoroughly, in the earlier publication. Includes a bibliography of more than 300 recently published books, grouped by mathematical topics.

Appendix B: Annotated Bibliography of Some of My Favorites

Segments from the Library of Congress summaries are included in selected annotations and are noted in italics.

Number and Operations

• 1. DeGross, Monalisa, Granddaddy’s Street Songs. New York: Jump at The Sun /Hyperion Books for Children, 1999.

  A grandfather vividly describes to his grandson a typical day from his youth, when he worked as a peddler selling fresh fruits and vegetables from a horse-drawn wagon throughout the city. After the story the students could figure out how much money the grandfather would have made if, for example, he sold five onions, etc.

• 2. Hest, Amy, The Babies Are Coming! New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1997.

  This book playfully shows the numbers of objects used and people needed to get 12 babies ready for a trip to the library.

• 3. Kalman, Maira, Next Stop—Grand Central. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1999.

  Grand Central Station in New York is described as “the busiest, fastest, biggest place there is” (n.p.). Words and numbers alike are used to describe what it is like, how it is run, and what kind of things you would see there.

• 4. Martin, Bill Jr. and Sampson, Michael, Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004.

  Numbers from one to one hundred climb to the top of an apple tree in this rhyming chant. After reading this story, children could put numbers from one to one hundred in a sponge-drawn apple tree.

• 5. Nesbit, E., Melisande. New York/San Diego/London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1989.

  Cursed by an evil fairy at her christening, Princess Melisande grows up bald but finds herself facing another set of problems when her wish for golden hair is fulfilled. Mathematical ideas that can build on this story include estimation, measurement, and doubling.

• 6. Petie, Haris, Billions of Bugs. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1975.

  This is a counting story involving different kinds of bugs. The book shows pictures to represent what 10 bugs, 100 bugs, and even 1,000 bugs look like. It also illustrates counting by 10s and 100s.

• 7. Pinczes, Elinor J., One Hundred Hungry Ants. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.

  One hundred hungry ants march to a picnic, but miss the food by taking the time to form different arrays (50  ×  2, 25  ×  4, etc.) in an effort to decide how to get there in a hurry.

• 8. Ruck-Pauquèt, Gina, Twenty-two Little Cats. New York: McGraw–Hill Book Company, 1962.

  This story begins with 11 cold, hungry cats that live in a tumbledown house. Soon after, this number doubles to 22. The people in the village decide to pitch together and help make life easier for the cats. By working together, they succeed in making a nice, warm home with plenty of food for the cats.

• 9. Schwartz, David M., How Much is a Million? New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1985.

  This book shows how big a million, billion, and trillion are in terms of tiny stars, children, goldfish bowls, etc.

• 10. Stevens, Janet and Crummel, Susan Stevens, Cook-a- Doodle-Doo. San Diego/New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1999.

  With the questionable help of his friends, Big Brown Rooster manages to bake a strawberry shortcake that would have pleased his great-grandmother, Little Red Hen. This book provides a rich context for developing an understanding of standard units of measurement.

• 11. Williams, Vera B., The Great Watermelon Birthday Party. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1980.

  One hundred children, each with a birthday on August 10, celebrate with a party in the park and form “The Club of 101 Children.” Math skills from this book could include addition, multiplication, grouping, and estimating.

Algebra

• 1. Anno, Mitsumasa, Anno’s Magic Seeds. New York: Philomel Books, 1995.

  In this story the reader uses number patterns to decide how many magical seeds a man will be able to harvest based on the number given away, placed in storage, eaten, and the double of the remaining planted.

• 2. Birch, David, The King’s Chessboard. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1988.

  A proud king, not willing to admit that he does not know something, grants a wise man’s wish to be given one grain of rice for the first square of a chessboard, two grains of rice for the second square, four grains of rice for the third square, and so on for every square on the chessboard.

• 3. Dipucchio, Kelly, Mrs. Bloom, Clean Up Your Classroom! New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 2005.

  The entire town of Up Yonder joins in to help their favorite teacher clean up her messy classroom. Mrs. McBloom taught school for 45 years. In this story each of her students come back to visit. How many people did she teach over her 45 years of teaching? If the classes were equal in size, the students could solve this equation by inserting different classroom sizes for C in the following equation: 45  ×  C = Number of Students Taught. They can look at other ways to find the number of students taught as well.

• 4. Kroeger, Mary Kay and Borden, Louise, Paperboy. New York: Clarion Books, 1996.

  In Cincinnati in 1927, paperboy Willie Brinkman tries to sell extras on the Dempsey-Tunney boxing match in his working class neighborhood. The information found at the beginning of the story on how much he earned selling 100 papers could be used to estimate and then determine how much he would earn selling 225 papers (answer found at the end of the book); also 300, 325, 250, etc. Estimation, multiplication, and division are used.

• 5. Wiesner, David, June 29, 1999. New York: Clarion Books, 1992.

  While her third grade classmates are sprouting seeds in paper cups, Holly has a more ambitious, innovative science project in mind. Her giant-sized vegetables provide an opportunity for students to study ratio and proportion. They could measure the people and the plants in the story and then a person in real life. Then they could use a simple algebraic formula or simple multiplication to estimate how big the plants in the story were in relation to the people.

Geometry

• 1. Brumbeau, Jeff, The Quiltmaker’s Journey. New York: Orchard Books, 2005.

  The quiltmaker grows up wealthy and sheltered, but radically changes her life after she discovers the poverty and need outside her town. After reading this story, the students could design their own intricate quilts using different tangram shapes.

• 2. Carle, Eric, The Secret Birthday Message. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1972.

  A message in code starts Tim off on an exciting treasure hunt to find his birthday present. This book uses an oval, a triangle, a rectangle, and a circle in the treasure hunt.

• 3. Ehlert, Lois, Color Zoo. New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1989.

  This book introduces colors and shapes with paper cutouts that, when overlapped, form animal faces. This book uses the shape of a circle, square, triangle, rectangle, heart, diamond, pentagon, and octagon to help create the animals.

• 4. Fauunce, Daphne, Snuffles’ House. Children’s Press International, 1980.

  After his old square house burns down, Snuffles the Hedgehog tries out various shapes, including an oval, round, and triangular house.

• 5. Hoban, Tana, Shapes, Shapes, Shapes. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1986.

  Photographs of familiar objects such as chair, barrettes, and manhole cover present a study of rounded and angular shapes, including circles, triangles, trapezoids, hearts, squares, ovals, parallelograms, hexagons, and stars. The book has a wordless format.

• 6. Rogers, Paul, The Shapes Game. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1989.

  Basic shapes are introduced through a simple riddle verse.

• 7. Spurr, Elizabeth, Gumdrop Tree. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 1994.

  Given a bag of gumdrops, the little girl in the story examines their colors, arranges them in rows, geometric shapes, and piles, and then decides to plant them. Eventually a tree grows that appears to bear lots of gumdrops. She enjoys making bigger shapes and then eating the gumdrops. At the end of the story the secret of the gumdrop-bearing tree is revealed.

Measurement

• 1. Arnold, Caroline, The Biggest Living Thing. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1983.

  Tells interesting facts about how big giant sequoias are, how to determine how old they are, and when they were discovered. After reading the books, the students could go outside and measure how big the trunk and trees are in their environment.

• 2. Clement, Rod, Counting on Frank. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Children’s Books, 1991.

  Frank is a boy who likes to use his brain to estimate the length of a line the average ballpoint pen will draw, how many of his pet dog Max will fit in his bedroom, etc.

• 3. Cummings, Pat, Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon. New York: Bradbury Press, 1991.

  Harvey tackles a big job, cleaning his room. The students could figure out from this story how many minutes remain until the show he wants to watch and how much time it takes him to clean his room.

• 4. Dale, David Lloyd, The Stopwatch. New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1986.

  Tom times everything with his new stopwatch, including the time it takes to retrieve the watch after his sister borrows it.

• 5. Gould, Deborah, Brendan’s Best-Timed Birthday. New York: Bradbury Press, 1988.

  Brendan has a wonderful birthday party, highlighted by sharing his father’s gift of a digital watch with a stopwatch with his friends who time every activity.

• 6. Krensky, Steven, Dangerous Crossing: The Revolutionary Voyage of John Quincy Adams. New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2005.

  In 1778, ten-year-old Johnny Adams and his father make a dangerous mid-winter voyage from Massachusetts to Paris in hopes of gaining support for the colonies during the American Revolution. After completing this story, students could examine some maps to determine the distance John Quincy Adams traveled during this ‘dangerous crossing.’

• 7. Lewis, Marjorie, Ernie and the Mile Long Muffler. New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, Inc., 1982.

  Inspired by the beautiful sweater his sailor uncle has knitted while at sea, Ernie decides to knit the longest muffler in the world and even gets his fourth grade classmates to help. The students can employ the use of measurement and division to calculate how much he would need to knit each day, each hour, and even each minute to complete the mile long muffler in a year, 2 years, etc.

• 8. Lionni, Leo, Inch by Inch. New York: Astor Books, 1960.

  An inchworm, about to get eaten, cleverly comes up with a way to measure several birds’ tails, etc., until he can find a way to escape.

• 9. Lord, John Vernon, The Giant Jam Sandwich. Verses by Janet Burroway. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972.

  The people of Itching Down, after being plagued with four million wasps, devise a plan to catch the wasps using a giant jam sandwich. Students could use measurement comparisons to estimate the perimeter, area, and volume of the slice of bread.

Data Analysis and Probability

• 1. Cooper, Helen F., A Pipkin of Pepper. New York: Frarrar Straus Giroux, 2005.

  While making pumpkin soup, three friends discover they have no salt and go to the city to buy some, but while Cat and Squirrel head straight to the salt store, Duck pauses at a pepper shop, then fears he will never see his friends again. On one page of this story, Duck starts mentally listing all the different kinds of pepper available. The teacher could use this story as a springboard for students to create their own lists or sortings of objects under several different categories.

• 2. Jocelyn, Marthe, Hannah’s Collections. New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2000.

  In this story, a girl named Hannah has a hard time deciding which of her many collections she would like to take to share with her class. She counts them, groups and sorts them, pairs them, makes patterns with them, and makes a sculpture collection with them.

• 3. Mori, Tuyosi, Socrates and the Three Little Pigs. New York: Philomel Books, 1986.

  Socrates the Wolf goes to a friend’s house to have him help decide where to find one of the three little pigs. They use statistics, combinations, and simple multiplication to predict which of five houses is the most likely place.