Ten cats discover three cans of paint and blotches, splotches and splats go everywhere!
A funny exploration of colour from award-winning author/illustrator Emily Gravett, 10 Cats is a wonderfully simple and engaging picture book.
While learning about counting and colours, very young children will delight in the adorable kittens on every spread and the simple text that is perfect for reading aloud.
A wonderful and unique look at counting and friendship.
This very simple picture book is about two friends, Sue and Nick, who like very different things but are still best friends. They introduce us to all their favourite things from one boy called Nick and one girl called Sue to ten cakes for tea, and then all the way back down to one yellow moon shining in the night sky. The artwork is stunning with each artist contributing alternate pages in their own inimitable style. The deceptively simple text is perfect for children learning to read.
Double the numbers to go from 1 to 1,000,000 in 40 pages. A stunning visualization of numbers big and small.
We start with a single tree; 1. As we turn the page, we are presented with a sum doubling the number on the page before it: 1+1 = 2; 2+2 = 4; 4+4 = 8. In this way, we reach a million (actually 1,048,576) within 44 pages.
Each sum is brought to life with a simple graphic illustration in the distinctive style of Sven Völker. The dots form the back of a ladybird, the bubbles in a cup of soda and the water in a swimming pool. On each page, a single neon dot illustrates what one means in the context of the sum.
Gloriously simple in its concept and execution, this is a book that will bring mathematics alive to parents as well as children and will also make a stunning gift book.
Maths Picturebooks List
Picturebooks can provide an excellent way of engaging pupils with maths. On this booklist, we have picked a selection of the best maths-themed stories that open opportunities to explore a range of mathematical concepts. Many thanks to Year 1 teacher Dean Boddington for working together with us to create this selection of the best children’s books about maths topics.
The books on the maths booklist cover topics of counting, number concepts, shape, space, measure and problem solving.
This varied booklist includes showstoppers like How Many Jelly Beans?, stories about doubling like Centipede’s 100 Shoes or Double the Fun and stories with big number concepts like How Big is a Million?
We’ve also included stories about counting, like the beautifully illustrated Counting Creatures, shape and measure stories like The Perfect Fit and How Much Does a Ladybird Weigh?, and problem-solving favourites like 365 Penguins.
There are three separate books in this trilogy of sublimely illustrated picture books where the main characters are shapes; Triangle, Square and Circle. Offering a story-based opportunity to explore shapes and discuss properties, each book develops the relationship between the shapes. The trilogy ends on a cliff hanger, with a mysterious shape appearing in the shadows but it is never revealed what it is. Children will love sharing their theories about the mystery shape and the stories provide a fantastic opportunity to assess understanding of shape properties and related vocabulary.
A funny tale of a centipede who gets sore feet and needs shoes and socks to help with his problem. Having always thought he had 100 feet, Centipede eventually realises that he doesn’t have that many. In the end he gives up on the footwear and redistributes them to his lesser-footed friends. This would be a great book to look at doubling and halving (pairs of shoes) or sharing (look at how many of his shoes he could give to various creatures).
A simple counting story from 1 – 10 that is written in the style of a Caribbean dialect, with stunning illustrations that will quickly grab the attention of young readers. This rhyming book written by much-loved poet Valerie Bloom introduces basic counting as well as showcasing a number of different fruits from the Caribbean. There is a glossary at the end of the book that explains the new words that readers may have encountered in the story.
This book is full of mind-blowing facts that readers young and old will find astounding, offering interesting context to the complex topic of time as well as distance and world history. It could be used across KS1 and KS2, either being used as a book to enjoy as a read-aloud and talk about the amazing facts or to delve deeper into each page and work through some of the related calculations.
Weight and mass often mean little to children without context. This book is brilliant for offering the context to the topic, with each page building on the last to compare the weight of different animals. It is fascinating to read the comparisons and children will begin to formulate their own questions and hypotheses long after the book is finished.
This is a book that helps younger children to visualise the larger numbers that intrigue them so much, through a cute and playful story about a curious penguin who wants to find out more about numbers. The book ends with a pull-out poster with one million stars in the night sky.
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Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
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