EMMA'S COUNTING
Author: JL Cornish
Illustrator: n/a
|
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
A fun and educational story, written by a primary school teacher, to develop number sense and counting skills. Emma is a little girl who loves to count - in fact she sees numbers almost everywhere! She sees them in her food, in her drawings and even playing outside. She loves to challenge her mind by breaking numbers into lots of different parts. Join Emma as she plays with numbers and develops her mathematical understanding. Includes discussion questions and optional learning activities to help deepen understanding and further develop number sense with your little one. The perfect book for teachers and parents to help develop mathematical understanding in children. |
“Or when drawing a new picture, she'd take all the pencils out, and put them into colours, so they were easier to count. When she put them into groups, she saw 5 and 5 and 2. She knew that it was 12, but were there other ways to do?”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
JL Cornish’s ‘Emma’s 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 spots different ways to count everyday objects by arranging them in different ways. For example, regardless of whether she arranges eight grapes in a single row on a plate or arranging them in two rows of four grapes, she still ends up with the same number of grapes. While the story does not have any actual storyline or a context for problem solving per se, it is still useful in providing a relatable everyday context to very young children to start relating the mathematical concept of counting to their everyday life. (Having an actual storyline and getting to hear Emma’s own voice - and not just the narrative description - would have made the story more engaging and personal.) The page illustrations are useful in supporting young children to visualise the counting and the different number bonds. Just like the other titles in the series, the book comes with some useful suggested discussion questions (e.g., “Could Emma have arranged her grapes in a different way? How?”), and learning activities (e.g., “Write or draw all the different ways you can make the number 12.”). All in all, ‘Emma’s Counting’ is a useful resource to introduce the concepts of counting, addition and number bonds to children, aged 4+ years old.
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant topics:
Addition & Subtraction; Counting forwards to and backwards from 10/20; Number Bond
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 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 spots different ways to count everyday objects by arranging them in different ways. For example, regardless of whether she arranges eight grapes in a single row on a plate or arranging them in two rows of four grapes, she still ends up with the same number of grapes. While the story does not have any actual storyline or a context for problem solving per se, it is still useful in providing a relatable everyday context to very young children to start relating the mathematical concept of counting to their everyday life. (Having an actual storyline and getting to hear Emma’s own voice - and not just the narrative description - would have made the story more engaging and personal.) The page illustrations are useful in supporting young children to visualise the counting and the different number bonds. Just like the other titles in the series, the book comes with some useful suggested discussion questions (e.g., “Could Emma have arranged her grapes in a different way? How?”), and learning activities (e.g., “Write or draw all the different ways you can make the number 12.”). All in all, ‘Emma’s Counting’ is a useful resource to introduce the concepts of counting, addition and number bonds to children, aged 4+ years old.
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant topics:
Addition & Subtraction; Counting forwards to and backwards from 10/20; Number Bond
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.
