Sizing Up Winter (Math in Nature Series #3)

by Flatt, Ashley Barron (Illustrator)

Overview

As young readers journey into the natural world, they will discover that numbers, patterns, shapes — and much more! — can be found in everyday plants and animals.

What if animals and plants knew math, just like us? Would snowflakes all fall from the same height in the sky? Would otters spread themselves evenly across lakes? Would groundhogs be aware of the date? In Sizing Up Winter, the third title in the Math in Nature series, nature comes to life to help children grasp concepts of time and measurement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771473392
Publisher:	OWLKIDS BOOKS
Publication date:	08/15/2018
Series:	Math in Nature Series , #3
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	490,079
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

LIZANN FLATT has written many information books for children, including the Math in Nature series. A former editor of chickaDEE Magazine, her children’s writing has won many honors, including a Distinguished Achievement Award from The Association of Educational Publishers. She lives in Muskoka, Ontario.

ASHLEY BARRON is a Toronto-based illustrator who specializes in cut-paper collage. Her award-winning illustrations have appeared in a variety of magazines, children’s publications, websites, posters, animations, and set designs. She has a deep appreciation for nature and finds inspiration in the vast Boreal Forest.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Counting on Fall:
"Barron's cut-paper collages have the crispness of an autumn afternoon, and Flatt smoothly touches on estimation, counting by fives and tens, counting backwards, and other mathematical concepts while maintaining a gentle, whimsical tone."
— Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

K-Gr 2—Using familiar animals such as cardinals, otters, and porcupines as well as the lesser-known snow fleas, musk oxen, and ptarmigans, Flatt takes readers on a mathematical, seasonal journey. Facts about the animals and the weather share space with measurement problems including distance, time, height, weight, length, area, and mass. The text, mostly in rhyming prose, and the accompanying math problems, which relate to the illustrations, can make for two separate reading experiences. Some sophisticated vocabulary ("capacity," "analog") makes this title better for adult/child sharing than independent reading. "Nature Notes" expand on the brief information about the animals highlighted in the text. Barron's full-page, cut-paper collages use a full palette of color and manage to instill subtle personality into the animals without sacrificing realism. Although most of the pictures show a snowy landscape, there is an acknowledgement that winter may look different depending on where one lives. CChildren who peruse the illustrations carefully and welcome the challenge of problem solving will enjoy this book.—Sara-Jo Lupo Sites, George F. Johnson Memorial Library, Endicott, NY

School Library Journal

2013-08-15
Flatt's latest, the third in the Math in Nature series, encourages children to use math to measure. Measuring with nonstandard units found in nature--footprints in the snow, otters in lakes, piles of porcupine leftovers--Flatt and Barron encourage children to look at the world in new ways. But this way of measuring may also confuse very young readers, for whom the book is best suited: "How far do flakes fall? / Is it one length for all? / The distance depends / on the start and the end." One question on this spread asks readers to count "[h]ow many snowflakes deep is the snow?" The grid of blue, gray and purple flakes provides the answer--eight--but it doesn't have any basis in reality. Other pages are more successful, encouraging readers to measure using the birds at two birdfeeders, bringing up the issue of the size of the measuring units--each is four birds long, but chickadees and cardinals are different sizes, as are their feeders. Distance, area, capacity, mass, time and comparisons round out the volume, which asks good questions, but children already need to have a good grasp of those concepts in order to answer them. Barron's stunning cut-paper collages are the highlight of the book, while backmatter provides a paragraph of information about each of the featured creatures. When read with a caring adult, this may challenge readers to look at measurement in a different way. (Math picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews