Math Class Goes to the LIBRARY!

Last Revised October 23, 2006.   (Please Reload or Refresh)
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I still plan to add more to this ... (Yes -- Still!) ... Please check back later!

CMC ^Far North Annual Fall Conference
This year's conference theme was
"Math Class Goes to Hollywood"

Keynote given by: John Hornsby, Univ. of New Orleans

Saturday, October 21, 2006
8 am - 4 pm
Arcata High School Campus


Many children's books can illustrate mathematical concepts. For example, in "Flossie & the Fox" by Patricia McKissack, Fox tries to "prove" he is a fox; young children can learn about definitions, attributes, and combinations of attributes (e.g., it is not enough to "define" a square by saying it has four sides, just like it is not enough for Fox to say he has a bushy tail - so do squirrels!). Several "non-mathy" books will be shown as examples.


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Handouts from the Conference
Math Class Goes to the Library! (Word doc, 11 pp) -- handout with book examples & Math Stds Quick Guide to Children's Literature (Word document, 1 page) -- "Quick Guide" from Dr. Deb Nolan Children's Literature Web Resources (Word doc, 3pp) -- web list, compiled by Dr. Deb Nolan


LINKS in Handouts from the Conference
See also other resources on this webpage
Math Class Goes to the Library!

Some sources for lists of books that can be used to teach math to children:


Tuesday, October 24 is "2-to-the-10th" Day!

That is, 2^10 = 1024

Perhaps the most notable thing about this is that, with computer files, "1KB" which stands for "1 Kilobyte" is 1024 bytes, not 1000 as many people believe.

Here is a website that lists powers of 2, with the actual values along with the "Common Storage Designation" in bytes: http://www.pcguide.com/res/tablesPowers-c.html

FYI: 2^20 = 1,048,576 = 1 MB 2^30 = 1,073,741,824 = 1 GB

Also, if your students know about Pascal's Triangle, there's a neat connection: the rows SUM to powers of 2. See: http://mathforum.org/workshops/usi/pascal/pascal_powers2.html

Have a Happy 2^10th on Tuesday!
Children's Literature Web Resources
compiled by Dr. Deb Nolan
  • http://www.csusm.edu/csb/ Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents -- Searchable database for recommended books in Spanish, recommended books about Latinos.
  • http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/ll/ The California Department of Education -- Recommended Literature: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve is a collection of outstanding literature for children and adolescents. The recommended titles reflect the quality and the complexity of the types of material students should be reading at school and outside of class. Searchable list, explanation of literary genre, classifications, awards, connections to standards, cultural designations, district selection policies, and FAQs.
  • http://www.reading.org/Library/Retrieve.cfm?D=10.1598/RT.60.2.7&F=RT-60-2-ChildrensChoices.html Children's Choices for 2006 from The Reading Teacher -- Children's Choices is a project of a joint committee supported by IRA and the Children's Book Council (CBC). IRA is a nonprofit educational organization whose members include classroom and reading teachers, school administrators and supervisors, parents, college/university faculty, and others who are dedicated to improving reading instruction and promoting literacy worldwide.
  • http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/bcata.html The Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication is an information repository of the Indiana University School of Education. Includes: children's and adolescent literature; reading instruction; Caldecott artists; language and literacy instruction for special populations; Newbery authors; psychological applications in literacy instruction; and more.
  • http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/school.htm Literature-based Mathematics in Elementary School. ERIC Digest
    ERIC Identifier: ED464807
    Publication Date: 2001-12-00
    Author: Haury, David L.
    Source: ERIC Clearinghouse for Science Mathematics and Environmental Education, Columbus, OH.
    Benefits of the literature connection, ways to use children's literature in teaching mathematics, the importance of context, resources, finding resources in the ERIC database.
  • http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/math/math.html Math and Children's Literature -- This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.
  • http://mathforum.org/t2t/faq/faq.lit.html The Math Forum is a research and educational enterprise of the Drexel School of Education.
    Teacher to teacher (T2T) discussion forum about using math to teach literature, recommended literature, submit favorite book, literature collections, and web resources.
  • http://oneweb.utc.edu/~deborah-mcallister/alpha_ie_s01_spr_to_HH.xls (Excel file) Mathematics and Children's Literature Booklist -- Over 600 titles. Updated September 2006. Copyright © 1996-2006 Deborah A. McAllister, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. All rights reserved.
  • http://www.ncac.org The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) -- Founded in 1974 . . . an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. United by a conviction that freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression must be defended, we work to educate our own members and the public at large about the dangers of censorship and how to oppose them.
  • http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?id=U83 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
    Mathematics and Children's Literature

    Five pieces of literature are applied to teaching a wide range of topics in the mathematics curriculum, from sorting and classifying to the meaning of averages. This lesson is adapted from the article "Ideas: Mathematics and Children's Literature," by Martha H. (Marty) Hopkins, that appeared in The Arithmetic Teacher, May 1993, pp. 512-519.
  • http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/rr/multcultlit.html Ramsey Library, UNC Asheville -- Literature, literature awards, periodical indexes, general multicultural resources, government information. This page emphasizes large, general sites that lead to more specific resources. The primary focus is on literature for children and young adults.

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