JUST ENOUGH EGGS
Author: Angela M. Isaacs with the Purdue Early Achievement Research Labs
Illustrator: Matt Dye
Number of pages: 29
Publisher: Purdue Early Achievement Research Labs 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 (The Little Elephants' Big Adventures) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, IND, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
Join Lucy, Benjamin, and Bear on their next math adventure. Hooray! It’s Bear’s birthday. But Lucy’s cake falls flat and the party will be a flop unless they can bake a just-right cake in this book about everyday math and perseverance.The Little Elephants’ Big Adventures series teaches early childhood math with fun adventures filled with mathematical words. |
“They looked at the cake recipe. "First, we need some eggs," said Benjamin. "No problem!" Lucy got many eggs. Benjamin pointed to the recipe. "Hmm. That's a different amount of eggs than the recipe shows."”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Angela M. Isaacs’s ‘Just Enough Eggs’ (2021) is a title in the ‘The Little Elephants’ Big Adventures’ series of mathematical stories by the Purdue Early Achievement Research Labs. The story is about Lucy who wants to bake a birthday cake for her cuddly toy named Bear. With the help of Benjamin, Lucy tries really hard to closely follow the baking recipe, paying attention to the amounts of the different ingredients stated in the recipe and the amounts of the ingredients she actually has at home. Throughout the stories, the characters use mathematical vocabularies, such as same, similar, different, and enough. The storyline is age appropriate and does well in embedding these mathematical vocabularies in an everyday situation. The page illustrations of the different food items are effective in helping young readers to make the comparisons between the different amounts of food items. To extend the mathematics learning opportunity after having read the story to their young children, teachers and parents can too provide a baking opportunity for their children to follow a simple recipe and to compare the amount of the stated ingredients with what they have. Alternatively, they can instead use and divide everyday objects (e.g., pencils, books, toys, Unifix cubes, etc.) into two groups, and encourage their children to observe and compare the amounts of these items across the two groups to see if they have the same, similar or different amounts, for example. Like the other titles in the series (i.e., ‘Too Many Pillows’ and ‘Picnic with Some Peanuts’), each page spread is accompanied by three questions: red (to be asked after the first reading), blue (to be asked after the second reading), and purple (to be asked after the third reading). The questions are a combination of those that aid young children’s story comprehension skills and those that can help to facilitate their mathematical thinking. Teachers and parents will find this book feature quite useful when reading the story to their children. All in all, we highly recommend ‘Just Enough Eggs’ to introduce the concept of measurement comparison to children aged 4+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author.)
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Measurement Comparison
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.
Angela M. Isaacs’s ‘Just Enough Eggs’ (2021) is a title in the ‘The Little Elephants’ Big Adventures’ series of mathematical stories by the Purdue Early Achievement Research Labs. The story is about Lucy who wants to bake a birthday cake for her cuddly toy named Bear. With the help of Benjamin, Lucy tries really hard to closely follow the baking recipe, paying attention to the amounts of the different ingredients stated in the recipe and the amounts of the ingredients she actually has at home. Throughout the stories, the characters use mathematical vocabularies, such as same, similar, different, and enough. The storyline is age appropriate and does well in embedding these mathematical vocabularies in an everyday situation. The page illustrations of the different food items are effective in helping young readers to make the comparisons between the different amounts of food items. To extend the mathematics learning opportunity after having read the story to their young children, teachers and parents can too provide a baking opportunity for their children to follow a simple recipe and to compare the amount of the stated ingredients with what they have. Alternatively, they can instead use and divide everyday objects (e.g., pencils, books, toys, Unifix cubes, etc.) into two groups, and encourage their children to observe and compare the amounts of these items across the two groups to see if they have the same, similar or different amounts, for example. Like the other titles in the series (i.e., ‘Too Many Pillows’ and ‘Picnic with Some Peanuts’), each page spread is accompanied by three questions: red (to be asked after the first reading), blue (to be asked after the second reading), and purple (to be asked after the third reading). The questions are a combination of those that aid young children’s story comprehension skills and those that can help to facilitate their mathematical thinking. Teachers and parents will find this book feature quite useful when reading the story to their children. All in all, we highly recommend ‘Just Enough Eggs’ to introduce the concept of measurement comparison to children aged 4+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author.)
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Measurement Comparison
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.