BIRTHDAY BEEPS AND BOOPS
Author: The Purdue University Science and Stories Collaborative
Illustrator: Kristina Tartara
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Number of pages: 31
Publisher: David J. Purpura (USA) First published in: 2020 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (The Pattern Pals) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, IND, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
Zoe the Parrot sets up a surprise party. Whose birthday is Zoe celebrating, anyway? Together, Zoe and Clara use the secret birthday girl’s favorite colors to decorate the party in different patterns before the big reveal. This book enriches the familiar setting of birthday parties with beautiful colors and patterns. Not only is it a fun and intriguing mystery, but the book has been designed to help young children learn simple patterning skills in an enjoyable way. |
“Let's choose a cake!" squawked Zoe. "This one has the birthday girl's favorite colors. Purple, green, purple, green!" [...] Zoe turned to the streamers. "Um ... look! Purple, green, purple, green! Same as the cake! Let's add more!”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
‘Birthday Beeps and Boops’ (2020) is the first book in a series of mathematical story picture books, called the Pattern Pals. Written by the Purdue University Science and Stories Collaborative, the series describes itself as “researched-based picture books to build early pattern skills”. The story follows Zoe the Parrot who organises a surprise birthday party for a special someone. Zoe’s best friend, Clara the Chameleon, helps Zoe setting up this party despite feeling somewhat ignored by Zoe as her birthday is today too. Will the two friends make up? The storyline does well in providing meaningful opportunities for young readers to observe patterns around us, be it the design pattern of the cake, the colour pattern of the party decorations, the size pattern of the party hats or the sound pattern that Zoe makes. Just like the other titles in the series, the book contains three suggested questions on each page for parents (and teachers) to ask their children. The questions in red colour are for the first reading; the questions in blue are for the second reading; and the ones in purple are for the third reading. These suggested questions can be really useful for parents who are new to the idea of reading their children a mathematical story and thus unsure what questions relating to the story they can ask to foster their children’s mathematical thinking (e.g., “If the cake was one layer taller, what colour should that layer be?”). The page illustrations by Kristina Tartara help young readers to visualise a range of patterns found in the story. Overall, ‘Birthday Beeps and Boops’ can be useful to help either introduce or reinforce the concept of repeating patterns to children aged 4+ years old. (If you like this book, you might also be interested in the other titles from the same series: ‘Sleepover Similarities’ and ‘Levels in the Library’.) (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author.)
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Patterns
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.
‘Birthday Beeps and Boops’ (2020) is the first book in a series of mathematical story picture books, called the Pattern Pals. Written by the Purdue University Science and Stories Collaborative, the series describes itself as “researched-based picture books to build early pattern skills”. The story follows Zoe the Parrot who organises a surprise birthday party for a special someone. Zoe’s best friend, Clara the Chameleon, helps Zoe setting up this party despite feeling somewhat ignored by Zoe as her birthday is today too. Will the two friends make up? The storyline does well in providing meaningful opportunities for young readers to observe patterns around us, be it the design pattern of the cake, the colour pattern of the party decorations, the size pattern of the party hats or the sound pattern that Zoe makes. Just like the other titles in the series, the book contains three suggested questions on each page for parents (and teachers) to ask their children. The questions in red colour are for the first reading; the questions in blue are for the second reading; and the ones in purple are for the third reading. These suggested questions can be really useful for parents who are new to the idea of reading their children a mathematical story and thus unsure what questions relating to the story they can ask to foster their children’s mathematical thinking (e.g., “If the cake was one layer taller, what colour should that layer be?”). The page illustrations by Kristina Tartara help young readers to visualise a range of patterns found in the story. Overall, ‘Birthday Beeps and Boops’ can be useful to help either introduce or reinforce the concept of repeating patterns to children aged 4+ years old. (If you like this book, you might also be interested in the other titles from the same series: ‘Sleepover Similarities’ and ‘Levels in the Library’.) (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author.)
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Patterns
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.
