EMMA'S BIG COUNTING
Author: JL Cornish
Illustrator: n/a
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Number of pages: 16
Publisher: Amazon (Australia) First published in: 2021 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, IND, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
An educational story written by a primary school teacher (and mathematics lover) to develop counting, estimating, grouping and place value knowledge. Emma LOVES counting! When she goes over to Leo's house they decide to count his big collection of cars. But should they count each car one-by-one, or is there an easier way? Join Emma and Leo as they learn how to group big numbers to make it accurate and easy to count. Includes discussion questions and optional learning activities to help deepen understanding and further develop number sense with your little one. 'Emma's BIG Counting' is part of a series that includes 'Emma's Counting', which explores number sense and counting. |
“But soon she quickly realised, counting by threes was hard to do, it was difficult to figure out, what came after 42. And so they both decided, they would have to start again, and this time they would try, to group them all in tens!”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
JL Cornish’s ‘Emma’s Big Counting’ (2021) is a title in the author’s series of mathematical story picture books. The story follows a young girl character, named Emma, as she helps her friend, Leo, count his toy cars. From counting the toy cars one by one, to counting them in threes to finally counting them in tens. While there is an element of problem solving (i.e., counting how many toy cars Leo has altogether), the problem arguably lacks a sense of authenticity, that is it lacks a meaningful purpose for why the characters are counting the cars in the first place. Beyond that, Leo also estimates the number of his toy cars and this is great in introducing to very young children the concept of estimation. The page illustrations are useful in supporting young children to visualise counting large numbers. Just like the other titles in the series, the book comes with some useful suggested discussion questions (e.g., “Why do you think Emma and Leo decided to group the cars into tens?”) and learning activities (e.g., “Think of a number bigger than 101. Can you draw it on a paper?”). All in all, ‘Emma’s Big Counting’ is a useful resource to introduce the concept of counting and, to an extent, the concept of estimating, to children, aged 4+ years old.
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant topics:
Counting forwards to and backwards from 100, Estimating
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.
JL Cornish’s ‘Emma’s Big Counting’ (2021) is a title in the author’s series of mathematical story picture books. The story follows a young girl character, named Emma, as she helps her friend, Leo, count his toy cars. From counting the toy cars one by one, to counting them in threes to finally counting them in tens. While there is an element of problem solving (i.e., counting how many toy cars Leo has altogether), the problem arguably lacks a sense of authenticity, that is it lacks a meaningful purpose for why the characters are counting the cars in the first place. Beyond that, Leo also estimates the number of his toy cars and this is great in introducing to very young children the concept of estimation. The page illustrations are useful in supporting young children to visualise counting large numbers. Just like the other titles in the series, the book comes with some useful suggested discussion questions (e.g., “Why do you think Emma and Leo decided to group the cars into tens?”) and learning activities (e.g., “Think of a number bigger than 101. Can you draw it on a paper?”). All in all, ‘Emma’s Big Counting’ is a useful resource to introduce the concept of counting and, to an extent, the concept of estimating, to children, aged 4+ years old.
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant topics:
Counting forwards to and backwards from 100, Estimating
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.
