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Topic: Maths

Picturebook

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.

Picturebook

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.

Non-fictionPicturebook

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.

Picturebook

What do one hundred sunbathing snails have in common with ten crabs? Find out in this joyful, award-winning counting book with a funny focus on feet.

If one is a snail, and two is a person … we must be counting by feet! Children will love this hilariously illustrated introduction to simple counting and multiplication with big feet and small – on people and spiders, dogs and insects, snails and crabs – from one to one hundred!

Picturebook

From the award winning creators of Oi Frog! comes an hilarious counting picture book about our four-legged – and two-legged and eight-legged – friends!

How many legs would there be if a polar bear came for tea? How high would the leg count go if a squid rode in on a buffalo? As more and more animals join in the fun, count along if you can!

Picturebook

From the award-winning team behind Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, and illustrated by Jon Klassen, the Kate Greenaway-winning creator of This Is Not My Hat and I Want My Hat Back, comes the first tale in an exciting new trilogy. Meet Triangle. He is going to play a sneaky trick on his friend, Square. Or so Triangle thinks… Visually stunning and full of wry humour, here is a perfectly-paced treat that flips the traditional concept book, and approaches it from a whole new angle.

Picturebook

Every day, Square brings a block out of his cave and pushes it up a steep hill. This is his work. When Circle floats by, she declares Square a genius, a sculptor! “This is a wonderful statue,” she says. “It looks just like you!” But now Circle wants a sculpture of her own, a circle! Will the genius manage to create one? Even accidentally?

Picturebook

Triangle and Square are visiting Circle, who lives at the waterfall. When they play hide-and-seek, Circle tells the friends the one rule: not to go behind the falling water. But after she closes her eyes to count to ten, of course that’s exactly where Triangle goes. Will Circle find Triangle? And what OTHER shapes might be lurking back there?

Picturebook

When a centipede trips over, and hurts his foot, the only thing for him to do is obtain a set of shoes for all of his feet . . . That is a lot of shoes! Now it could take him longer to get dressed than to do anything else. So, after a rethink, he shares his shoes amongst various neighbours: beetles, spiders, earwigs and other creatures. Count up the number of feet, and find out whether he manages to get rid of all his shoes! (Do you think he started with 100 in the beginning?)

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Stone Girl Bone Girl

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