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Health & Fitness

Picture Books That Make Your Kids Smarter

Wonderful picture books that start with a great story and incorporate early math concepts.

 

While I don't believe that the goal of a picture book is to teach math, some of the best picture books incorporate math concepts and terms into stories that help reinforce these ideas and show kids that math really can be used on a daily basis.  

When the story is good, kids don't even realize how much they are absorbing.

This week, I have selected a few picture books that help kids appreciate the power of numbers. Great stories that teach math, well, that adds up to great fun (OK, perhaps I took the pun a little to far ... it's been a long day!)

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To see all my picture book selections that incorporate math, visit my website at www.onegreatbook.com

Title:       One Grain of Rice 

Author:   Demi 

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Target:    Kindergarten and up 

What this book is about:

This is a mathematical folktale about a raja in India who stored rice for his subjects. When famine came, he was unwilling to share what he had stored, so a very clever girl, Rani, came up with a plan.

After doing a good deed for the raja, he lets her choose her reward. She asks for one grain of rice .... to be doubled every day for thirty days. The raja thinks the girl is a fool, but thirty days later, his storehouses are bare and Rani has accumulated over a billion grains of rice! 

Why I love this book:

This book is a visual treat to show kids the power of doubling. Every child I read this book to thinks like the raja at the beginning of the story, that the grains will amount to nothing, and by the end their mouths are hanging open. 

Of course their next comment is always “if you give me a penny today and double it every day for thirty days....”  Some of the more ambitious kids ask for a dollar! 

Who this book is for:

I think all kids will get excited about the power of math after reading this book. 

Final thoughts:

If you visit my blog today and double your visits every day ....  A girl can dream!

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