Use Your Math Power Series: Hatching Butterflies; Monkeys for the Zoo; Penguins on Parade
Vol. 22, No. 6 | teaching children mathematics • February 2016
Literature related to the Common Core State Standards is rapidly emerging, and Belkov has positively added to this repertoire by emphasizing the Standards for Mathematical Practice in her three-book series, Use Your Math Power. Through her stories, Belkov creates a classroom where students feel comfortable and confident using the mathematical skills that they have learned to reason through problems posed by their beloved teacher Ms. Greene.
Each book offers readers the opportunity to view mathematics from various student perspectives. Belkov introduces us to Mia, the shy mathematical student who gains assurance in her “math power” by helping another student reason through an unknown addend problem in Monkeys for the Zoo. We also meet Trevor, the straightforward student who learns to expand his mathematical knowledge by exploring the counting of tens from a different perspective in Penguins on Parade. Finally, in Hatching Butterflies, Carlos is a student who is frustrated working with a peer. But together, with the help of a number line, Carlos and Hannah are able to demonstrate to the class that problems can have more than one path to a solution.
Belkov’s books are fabulous examples of teaching mathematics through discovery and discussion and would be an asset to any primary classroom. As an introduction to problem solving or as reinforcement for the importance of building a learning community, the Use Your Math Power series will get students thinking constructively and talking about mathematics.—Lindsay A. Gold, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.