100 SNOWMEN
Author: Jennifer Dussling Arena
Illustrator: Stephen Gilpin
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Number of pages: 20
Publisher: Amazon's Two Lions (USA) First published in: 2013 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? No Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
A growing number of snowmen engage in whimsical, playful antics while inviting young children to practice their counting skills up to 100. |
“One lonely snowman has a carrot nose. Two other snowmen join him when it snows. 1 + 2 = 3. Three more snowmen count the stars at night. Four more snowmen have a snowball fight. 3 + 4 = 7.”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
In Jen Arena’s ‘100 Snowmen’ (2013), different numbers of snowmen engaging in different activities are shown on each page. Each combination of snowmen is accompanied by a number sentence. While we love the visual aspect of the book in that it clearly represents each addition sentence with the corresponding number of snowmen, we would have preferred there to be a more meaningful purpose for counting and adding snowmen, like what we find in ‘Count Off, Squeak Scouts!’. This is to help children appreciate the real world application of mathematical knowledge. Additionally, we would have loved for ‘100 Snowmen’ to have more of an actual storyline and characters to help engage children, and to avoid the ‘concept book’ feel. As this is a mathematical story, gender diversity is important. As the title suggests, the presence of any female characters in the story is currently absent. The inclusion of snowwomen, for example, could have been a simple way to make gender representation more diverse. All in all, ‘100 Snowmen’ could be useful for children aged 5+ years old to practise counting and adding up to 100 as well as writing number sentences. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher)
Recommended age range:
5 years old +
Relevant topics:
Addition & Subtraction; Counting forwards to and backwards from 100
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
In Jen Arena’s ‘100 Snowmen’ (2013), different numbers of snowmen engaging in different activities are shown on each page. Each combination of snowmen is accompanied by a number sentence. While we love the visual aspect of the book in that it clearly represents each addition sentence with the corresponding number of snowmen, we would have preferred there to be a more meaningful purpose for counting and adding snowmen, like what we find in ‘Count Off, Squeak Scouts!’. This is to help children appreciate the real world application of mathematical knowledge. Additionally, we would have loved for ‘100 Snowmen’ to have more of an actual storyline and characters to help engage children, and to avoid the ‘concept book’ feel. As this is a mathematical story, gender diversity is important. As the title suggests, the presence of any female characters in the story is currently absent. The inclusion of snowwomen, for example, could have been a simple way to make gender representation more diverse. All in all, ‘100 Snowmen’ could be useful for children aged 5+ years old to practise counting and adding up to 100 as well as writing number sentences. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher)
Recommended age range:
5 years old +
Relevant topics:
Addition & Subtraction; Counting forwards to and backwards from 100
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
