Eating Fractions

Written and Photography by: Bruce McMillan

Recommended for: Children Ages 4-8

Themes: Math, Character Education

Summary:

     Eating Fractions illustrates the story of two friends who share their food by cutting it up into fractions to share amongst one another and with their dog. The children enjoy cutting up the food into halves, thirds and quarters. McMillian has used pictures of the friends dividing up there food along with simple drawings of each food with fractions displayed on each fraction of the food to show that the real portions of food are in fact a portion of the whole.

     Children will love the simplistic way in which the book is written and in which it displays dividing up a whole into equal parts to make a fraction. The pictures in this book really do tell the story, making it easy for children to go back to it on there own with little assistance from an adult while maintaining their ability to understand the story and concept.

Suggestions for the Classroom:

     Eating Fractions is a wonderful book to use with young children to introduce fractions as being parts of a whole. It is also a great book to open up discussions with children about sharing and how all members of a group should get equal amounts in order to be fair when sharing.

*Pre-Reading Activities: Tell the students brought in a special treat which you would like to share with them in class today: bananas. However, you were quite sleepy when you packed your bag today and did not bring enough for everyone. You only brought 12 bananas with you and there are 24 children in the class today. Tell students that you are very sad, because you wanted to share and are not sure how you can do it fairly so that everyone gets some. Tell that you are going to read them a book while you try to figure out what to do to solve your problem.

*During Reading: Point out to students how the two boys were able to cut up their the different parts of their meal so that each of them could have some. Ask the students if the boys were getting the same amount of each food?

*Post-Reading Activities: See if any of them come up with a solution to your problem and whether or not it could work for the amount of bananas that you have so that they can be shared equally. Carefully cut the bananas in half and count them with the children to see if you now have enough for everyone to get an equal share (you may want to have someone put paper towels down on the students desks ahead of time, if you can, to save time once you begin cutting). To extend this activity, after the students have finished eating their snack, give them a contruction paper template of a pizza. Ask the students to show you how they could share their pizza with three friends equally, between the four of them, so that each of them would get an equal amount.

About the Author/Photographer:

     Bruce McMillan was born in Boston, Mass but grew up and attended school in Maine. He began his love for literature as a young child, riding his bike into town each week to spend his hard earned allowance on books while he made his way through the Hardy Boys Series. McMillian always loved to take photographs, with a professional camera given to him by his dad at the age of 9, and sold his first one as a teenager (a photograph of his former home, now the summer residence of George H.W. Bush). He describes that while he has always loved reading and the spoken word, it wasn't until he was a "big kid". He states that he taught himself about writing while working as a island caretaker on McGee Island one summer. By the end of that summer he wrote his first published work, an article for the DownEast Magazine. During his last few weeks on the island, McMillian had also taken the photographs for and outlined his first book, Finestkind o'Day, which featured his own child.

Purchase or Read Reviews of Book at Amazon.com



Ten Seeds

Written and Illustrated by: Ruth Brown

Recommended for: Children Ages Birth-5

Themes: Science, Math, Character Education (Responsibility)

Summary:

     Ten Seeds tells the story of a little boy who has planted ten flower seeds in his garden. However, throughout the story the the seeds, seedlings, shoots and plants are picked out or trampled by a slue of animals and people one by one until just one flower is left. At the conclusion of the story the flower drops ten seeds so that the whole cycle may start again.

     Children will enjoy this counting book, counting down from ten to one, and watching the seeds as the grow into a flower. They will be sad to see some of them do not make it but will be able to make connections to this process and what they may have seen in their own gardens or those in their neighborhoods. The pictures are simple yet realistic, and will really draw the children into the story.

Suggestions for the Classroom:

     This story is wonderful to use with children when discussing plants and how the grow from seeds. It will be interesting for them to see that not all seeds will make it to being made into plants and that even though many animals help them to survive, there are also accidents that keep them from maturing.

*Pre-Reading Activities: Discuss with students all of the things that plants need to grow: food, water, light, and oxygen. Explain to them that most plants make their own seeds, and with help from the wind and bees they are able to spread these seeds to help new plants grow. Tell them, that they are going to listen to you read a book today and learn more about how plants grow.

*During Reading: Discuss with students the changes that are taking place among the different plants as they grow. Give them opportunities to make connections with times that they have seen plants grow as well as time where they have seen plants get trampled.

*Post Reading: Give students an opportunity to plant their own flower seeds in a cup. Explain to them that we are going to keep them in a safe place to keep them from getting trampled so that they can grow into flowers. Ask them what other things the plant may need: food, water, sunlight, and oxygen. Explain how we can give them these things: oxygen: all around us in the room; light: we will put them in the window to get sunlight; food: we will plant them in potting soil which will feed them the nutrients in the soil; and water: we will have someone in the class water them each day as a job.

Let the students take their flowers home once they have sprouted to share with their families, remind them to keep them in a safe place.

About the Author/Illustrator:

     Ruth Brown was born in England, her family moved to Germany after the war but Ruth returned to England in 1953. She was always talented when it came to drawing, and began attending Art College at the age of 16. She earned a National Diploma in Design in 1961, and then became an Asssociate at the Royal College of Art in London, where she met her husband, Ken Brown, also a student at this college. She orignially worked for BBC doing children's programming but eventually got her start illustrating children's books for other writers. In 1978 she published her first children's book, which she authored, through the encouragement of a friend (Crazy Charlie).

Purchase Book or Read Review on Amazon.com