Great Estimations

by Bruce Goldstone, Bruce Goldstone (Illustrator)

Overview

How many jelly beans are on this book's cover? Don't count—estimate!

If someone handed you a big bowl of jelly beans, how would you figure out how many there are? You could count them, one by one—or you could estimate. Do you see more than five jelly beans? Less than a million?

This unique book will show you how to train your eyes and your mind to make really great estimations—by making estimating into a game. Jelly beans are just the beginning! This title has Common Core connections.

Great Estimations is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312608873
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	05/11/2010
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	698,657
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.80(h) x 0.10(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Bruce Goldstone is the author of several books, including 100 Ways to Celebrate 100 Days, Greater Estimations and The Beastly Feast. He has worked in educational publishing for nearly twenty years. Growing up in Ohio, Bruce fell in love with reading and the magic of words, and even back then he knew he wanted to be a writer. Books have always been an important part of his life, from buying used paperbacks to his first job, shelving books as a library page. He now lives in New York City with a plethora of pets including one dog, three parakeets, and an aquarium.

Editorial Reviews

A model of how to do it right.” —New York Times Book Review

“A must-have resource for school libraries.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Goldstone adds another winner to the growing canon of titles that make learning math concepts both fun and interesting.” —School Library Journal

“With jaw-dropping color photos . . . this book lends itself equally well to skill building and to casual reading.” —Booklist

From the Publisher

Gr 1-4-Goldstone adds another winner to the growing canon of titles that make learning math concepts both fun and interesting. Combining clear, concise language with colorful photos of countable objects, he introduces estimation, beginning with eye-training exercises to recognize groupings of 10s, 100s, and 1000s. Readers are encouraged to move the book around so they can see the items from varying perspectives. The next few spreads explain how to base an estimate on quantified groups: left-hand pages show clusters of an object (10 cherries, 100 cherries) while right-hand pages present an unidentified amount of the same thing ("About how many cherries are in a quart?"). The author then shows youngsters how to make reasonable estimates when looking at large quantities using clump counting and box counting. The real standout here is the crisp photography of objects and animals, including everything from google eyes to a penguin colony, set against stark white backgrounds that make them almost seem to leap off the page. This well-designed book will add zing to many a math lesson and attract browsers as well.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Math teachers have a new tool for teaching estimation in this manual designed to train the eyes and mind. In the "Eye Training" section, Goldstone uses photos of objects and animals to help readers recognize groups of tens, hundreds and thousands, and then presents several opportunities to practice this type of estimation. In "Clump Counting," children see how much space ten (for example) of an object takes up, then how many groups of tens there are, to arrive at a good estimate. "Box and Count" is a similar method wherein readers are taught to visually divide a space into one hundred small boxes, count the objects within one and multiply by one hundred. Throughout, a hint box at the bottom of the page gives clues as to where to start, methods for proceeding and possible estimates. Perfectionists beware: Only one exact number is given in the entire book. A list of things to estimate gives readers a chance to practice their new skills in the real world. A must-have resource for school libraries. (Nonfiction. 7-12)

Kirkus Reviews