|
|
Mathematics across the Curriculum
|
|
by Belle Akers, Sacred Heart Elementary School, San Francisco
ComMuniCator, 1996, 21 (1), 20-21.
Children's
literature is a wonderful vehicle for integrating curricular areas.
Through quality book selection, mathematics concepts can be introduced,
reinforced and strengthened with related extension activities. What
begins as a mathematics lesson can easily broaden in scope to include
language arts, social studies, art and / or science.
Geometric Shapes and Art
Shapes
and colors are found everywhere! Basic geometric shapes introduced in
Color Zoo (Ehlert 1989) are used in combinations to form zoo animals
(Bartch 1996). Kindergarten and first grade students may be challenged
to form new animals from a variety of pre-cut shapes in different sizes
and colors. After students are familiar with identifying shapes, they
can look for objects that match shapes in the classroom or bring in
items from home to use for sorting and graphing activities.
Second
and third graders will enjoy The Greedy Triangle (Burns 1994) which
introduces them to more complex shapes: quadrilateral, pentagon and
hexagon. The story begins with a triangle who decides to explore by
changing into a variety of multi-sided shapes. But in the end
"triangle's favorite thing was to slip into place when people put their
hands on their hips." A triangle shape is clearly seen from the
positioning of a hand on the hip.
Moving away from standard
geometric shapes, free form paper shapes allow children to explore,
create and express their own ideas of symmetry, positive and negative
space. The later work of Matisse, his colorful paper cutouts, provides
inspiration for a related art activity. Construction paper, scissors
and glue are the only supplies needed to create an original paper
cut-outs collage. Matisse (Boutan 1995) is one in a series of Art
Activity pack sets published by Chronicle Books. Art Activity Packs
include a full-color resource art book (13 pages) with examples of
artist's work and brief text suitable for primary students.
Tangrams
One
excellent example is Grandfather Tang's Story (Tompert 1990) which
demonstrates the use of tangrams. The story begins with a grand father
and his granddaughter sitting under a tree where he is telling her a
story about two fairy foxes. The foxes have magical powers that allow
them to change shapes. As the story unfolds, seven geometric shapes are
manipulated in a variety of positions to form animals.
First
grade students build tangram animals from the story individually or
with partners. Tangram activities had been introduced earlier in the
year, therefore, students were able to successfully build animals by
positioning pieces as needed. Since working with tangrams can be
frustrating for students, it is important that they understand that
pieces may need front to-back flips.
After building several
examples from the story, students were challenged to create their own
animals. Paper tangram patterns were cut apart and pasted to show new
animals. After adding artwork (animal features and background), simple
sentences were written to tell about the animal. A final project
involved choosing one animal for a writing workshop story and using it
as the main character. Animal characters included dogs, rabbits,
beaver, ladybug, raccoon, peacock, frog, bat, and a fire-breathing
dragon.
Numbers, Social Studies and Geography
Emeka's
Gift An African Counting Book (Onyefulu 1995) and Moja Means One
Swahili Counting Book (Feelings 1971) are two multicultural books that
not only introduce sequence counting (one to ten) but also reveal the
cultural heritage of West and East African people, respectively.
Through photographs, we follow Emeka on his journey through the village
to visit his grandmother.
The accompanying text in both books
offer a glimpse into some of the social customs and traditions found in
two distinct African cultures. After learning to count in Swahili,
students created whole class and individual counting books illustrated
with African objects (found in these and other books). Phonetic
pronunciations are given for Swahili and can also be found in these
books: Count Your Way Through Africa (Haskins 1992), Rehema A Journey
in Tanzania (Margolis 1990), and Jambo, kenya! (Klyce 1989).
Two
stories from the Caribbean, One White Sail A caribbean Counting Book
(Garne 1992) and One Smiling Grandma (Linden 1992) also reinforce
sequence counting. Vivid, colorful artwork reinforces one-to-one
correspondence as objects can easily be pointed to when reading aloud
One White Sail in a standard size or big book format (Harcourt Brace
School Publishing). Bright pastel drawings in One Smiling Grandma show
a little girl counting familiar objects with her grandmother.
Multicultural
counting books are a valuable resource for exploring cultural heritage.
As a literature extension, students created a classbook with familiar
sights from their own community. A counting book about San Francisco
includes famous landmarks such as: one lighthouse on Alcatraz two
towers on the Golden Gate Bridge, four cable cars, sever curves on the
crookedest street, etc.
Measurement, Numbers, Plants and Science
Two
books, Spring Planting (Kohn 19950 and The Fall Gathering (Kohn 1995),
help students learn about measurement (time, plant growth) and numbers.
Detailed illustrations in Spring Planting show how a young Native
American girl and her father prepare for planting: measuring the plots,
staking the boundaries and planting the seeds. The story continues with
the growing season for gourds, beginning in June when they are planted
until October when they are harvested.
Planting seeds in the
classroom engages students in a purposeful activity which integrates
mathematics and other curricular areas. Keeping journals involves
recording growth information as students observe, record and measure
the length of roots, stems and leaves. Students can keep charts to show
how many days it takes for their plants to erupt about the soil.
Comparisons can be made about the variety of leaf shapes, textures or
stem thicknesses of different plants.
The Fall Gathering is a
wonderful companion book to sued with Spring Planting in the Fall
months (October or November). A Woodland tribe gathers together to
celebrate the harvest of 3 choices of nuts, 4 kinds of squash, 5 kinds
of beans, 6 baskets or corn, 7 varieties of root vegetables, 8 loads of
berries, etc. "At the end of the day, all that is left is the empty
pot, baskets and trays." Plan a "harvest day" and ask students to bring
in Fall produce for mathematics sorting and graphing activities. For
additional counting practice, one to ten and by 10s to 100, One
Watermelon Seed (Lottridge 1986) shows 10 different types of seeds and
the resulting harvest by two children who plant a garden. These books
are sure to brighten your science library!
References:
Burns, Marilyn. The Greedy Triangle. New York: Scholastic, 1994.
Ehlert, Lois. Color Zoo. New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1989.
Feelings, Muriel. Moja Means One Swahili Counting Book. New York: Dial Books, 1971.
Garne, S. One White Sail. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Kohn, R. Fall Gathering. New York: Children's Press, 1995.
______ . Spring Planting. New York: Children's Press, 1995.
Linden, A. One Smiling Grandma. New York: Dial Books, 1992.
Lottridge, Celia Barker. One Watermelon Seed. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Onyefulu, I. Emeka's Gift An African Counting Story. Cobblehill, 1995.
Tompert, Ann. Grandfather Tang's Story. New York: Crown, 1990.
Teaching Resources
Bartch, M. (1996). Math & Stories
Goodyear Books
Scott Foresman
1900 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, IL. 60025
Boutan, M. (1995). Matisse Art Activity Pack
Chronicle Books 275 Fifth Street, S.F., CA 94103
Children's Books: 415-777-8853
Trade books and Big Books
Harcourt Brace School Publishers, K-8 Catalog 1996
6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, FL, 32887
1-800-225-5425
Page Properties
Print This Page
This Page was last updated: Thursday, February 19, 2004 at 6:51:03 PM
This page was originally posted: 5/14/2001; 4:22:36 PM.
Copyright 2008 cmcmath
|
|
