Excited to share with you what we have been up to for the monthly book club, Poppins Book Nook! May's theme was folktales; a folktale is a story that has been told and {re}told for many years. Our library has shelves full of folktales mixed in with other closely related books--fables, tall tales, and fairy tales. After reading through our stash, we decided to share some math activities for the African Folktale, "How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?"
post may contain affiliate linksStorybook Go-along Activity
It all begins with a rather vain Leopard admiring his beautiful spots when Plover comes and agrees that they are beautiful but questions, how many spots he has? Leopard cannot count but with the help of numerous animals he finally comes up with an answer that he is happy with. If you want to know how many spots leopard has, you'll have to read the book for yourself! Until then, here is how we explored different math concepts for this story.Counting
How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have? was a great introduction to counting! Giraffe was able to count the highest, however "when he got to sixty-nine, he paused. Does anyone know what comes after sixty-nine?" "Seventy!" said Tortoise. "No, eighty!" argued Eagle. All the arguing exhausted Giraffe and since no one else could count as high as him, they soon left.
A fun way to extend this concept would be to ask your child, "What comes after.....?" or see how high your child can count!
Addition
Giraffe counted thirty-seven spots on Leopard's tail and twenty-two on Leopard's head, but no one knew how to add the two numbers together.
However, if your child is working on double-digit addition, he/she will be able to!
Multiplication
The concept of multiplication to figure out how many spots leopard has was used by Monkey. Monkey counted to ten spots and then started over again. "Wait!" exclaimed Leopard. "Why did you start over?" "It's multiplication," answered Monkey. [...] Two tens make twenty. Three tens makes thirty."
My son has been interested in multiplication lately, so we did a couple of different activities to explore this concept. First we pulled out our bucket of black pom poms and made groups of ten, just like Monkey.
Another way we explored multiplication was by using our pom poms with a muffin tin. I wrote out several multiplication problems for him to work through. We would fill each muffin cup/ "group" with a certain amount of pom poms to find the answer.
Who knew you could explore counting, addition, and multiplication in one book?--let alone a Folktale!! Definitely thankful for this month's Poppins Book Nook theme; we found several great books to read that we otherwise would not have read.
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Hope you have some time to see what the other co-hosts read this month!
clipart by Melon Headz
Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ 3 Dinosaurs ~ To the Moon and Back ~ Planet Smarty Pants ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Growing in God's Grace ~ Chestnut Grove Academy ~ Learning and Growing the Piwi Way ~ The Usual Mayhem~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Monsters Ed Homeschool Academy ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Teach Beside Me ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ Kathy's Cluttered Mind ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Our Crafts N Things ~ Hopkins Homeschool ~ ABC Creative Learning ~ Joy Focused Learning ~ P is for Preschooler ~ Laugh and Learn ~ A Mommy's Adventures ~ Inspiring 2 New Hampshire Children ~ World for Learning ~ Ever After in the Woods ~ Golden Grasses ~ Our Simple Kinda Life ~ A glimpse of our life ~ Journey to Excellence ~ Happy Little Homemaker ~ Little Homeschool Blessings ~ Simplicity Breeds Happiness ~ Raventhreads ~ Learning Fundamentals ~ Tots and Me ~ As We Walk Along The Road ~ Stir the Wonder ~ For This Season ~ Where Imagination Grows ~ Lextin Academy ~ The Canadian Homeschooler ~ School Time Snippets ~ Peakle Pie ~ Mom's Heart ~ A Moment in our World ~ Every Bed of Roses ~ Finchnwren ~ At Home Where Life Happens ~ Suncoast Momma ~ The Library Adventure ~ Embracing Destiny ~ Day by Day in our World ~ Our Homeschool Studio ~ A "Peace" of Mind ~ Thou Shall Not Whine ~ SAHM I am ~ eLeMeNo-P Kids ~ Simple Living Mama
See you next month for the theme, The Great Outdoors!
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