Recommended Books

How do you know what time it is?

Robert E. Wells

Australian Curriculum:  Description

This book tells the story of time. From the earliest ‘clocks’ devised by Egyptians to moon cycles, solar calendars, Roman calendars, tme zones and time travel.

Teaching ideas
Used for a unit starter. Many fertile questions can be derived from this book. Test the accuracy of the ancient Egyptian 'stick-clock' system.

Give Me Half!

Stuart J. Murphy

Australian Curriculum:  Description

This story is about a brother and sister who are asked to share all their food and drink; pizza, cupcakes, drink etc

Teaching ideas
(1) Read the story and describe what's going on in each picture; (2) vocabulary-half, whole, share, divide, divided equally; (3) gather materials (objects, quantities and collections) and discuss how you would halve them; (4) draw pictures of objects in your classroom, and lines to show 'half'

A Very Improbable Story

Edward Einhorn

Australian Curriculum:  Description

This book is a story centered around probability. Ethan goes about his morning routine while his cat friend “odds” teaches him about the probability of choosing two marbles the same colour from a large collection, two matching socks from a small collection and so on.

Teaching ideas
(1) Discuss the history of probability and the mathematicians Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat; (2) "act out" the probability situations from the story to draw conclusions; (3) conduct similar experiments and record results with and without technologies

Math for All Seasons

Greg Tang

Australian Curriculum:  Description

This book explores counting up collections of items and objects. The book encourages seeing patterns to make the counting quicker than one-by-one.

Teaching ideas
(1) Prep students can count the objects in the collections within this book; (2) years 1-3 students can be encouraged to 'see the pattern' to help them partition to count up the objects in the quantities quicker; (3) Final pages of the book show the answers using numbers and symbols as well as circles drawn around the collection, year 2s and 3s should be encouraged to set their work out using numbers and symbols

Who Sank the Boat?

Pamela Allen

Australian Curriculum:  Description

The story of 5 animal friends who decide to take a boat trip. It all goes pear-shaped when the boat won’t hold all the weight. So, who sinks the boat?

Teaching ideas
Other investigations based on the book; would the order they got in the boat have effected the outcome? Place the animals in order of lightest to heaviest - test your prediction. How would a bigger boat have effected the outcome?

Adam Spencer’s Mind-Boggling Maths, Outrageous Puzzles, Enormous Super-Cool Games Book of Numbers and heaps of other fun stuff!

Adam Spencer

Australian Curriculum:  Description

Prep-Sort, describe and name familiar two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional objects in the environment (ACMMG009); YR1-Recognise and classify familiar two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional objects using obvious features (ACMMG022); YR2-Describe the features of three-dimensional objects (ACMMG043); YR3-Identify symmetry in the environment (ACMMG066); YR4-Investigate number sequences involving multiples of 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 (ACMNA074); YR5-Use efficient mental and written strategies and apply appropriate digital technologies to solve problems (ACMNA291); YR6-Construct simple prisms and pyramids (ACMMG140); YR7-Draw different views of prisms and solids formed from combinations of prisms (ACMMG161); YR8-Solve a range of problems involving rates and ratios, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA188); YR9-Express numbers in scientific notation (ACMNA210)

Teaching ideas
Real-world application in this book. Cross-curricular links are strong too, science, humanities, music, HPE etc

Wild Fibonacci: Nature’s Secret Code Revealed

Joy N. Hulme

Australian Curriculum:  Description

Describe, continue, and create number patterns resulting from performing addition or subtraction (ACMNA060); 4-Find unknown quantities in number sentences involving addition and subtraction and identify equivalent number sentences involving addition and subtraction (ACMNA083)

Teaching ideas
Puzzle collaboration to create some summary notes for the maths workbook. Like the clip titled Fibonacci Numbers: Identifying Patterns on Teaching Channel

Miss Lily’s Fabulous Pink Feather Boa

Margaret Wild

Australian Curriculum:  Description

Identify questions or issues for categorical variables. Identify data sources and plan methods of data collection and recording (ACMSP068); Collect data, organise into categories and create displays using lists, tables, picture graphs and simple column graphs, with and without the use of digital technologies (ACMSP069); 4-Use simple scales, legends and directions to interpret information contained in basic maps (ACMMG090); 4-Construct suitable data displays, with and without the use of digital technologies, from given or collected data. Include tables, column graphs and picture graphs where one picture can represent many data values (ACMSP096); 4-Evaluate the effectiveness of different displays in illustrating data features including variability (ACMSP097); 5-Construct displays, including column graphs, dot plots and tables, appropriate for data type, with and without the use of digital technologies (ACMSP119)

Teaching ideas
Information poster on an Australian animal depicted in the book; - Scientific Name - Description - Location (map and description) - Habitat - Diet - Status (Endangered/Not Endangered) - Life Cycle - Data/statistics - Other interesting facts - Pictures/illustrations; or a trifold brochure with the above. With or without the use of technology.

Can you count to a googol?

Robert E. Wells

Australian Curriculum:  Description

Recognise, model, represent and order numbers to at least 10 000 (ACMNA052); Apply place value to partition, rearrange and regroup numbers to at least 10 000 to assist calculations and solve problems (ACMNA053); 4-Recognise, represent and order numbers to at least tens of thousands (ACMNA072); Apply place value to partition, rearrange and regroup numbers to at least tens of thousands to assist calculations and solve problems (ACMNA073); 7-Investigate index notation and represent whole numbers as products of powers of prime numbers (ACMNA149)

Teaching ideas

Grandfather Tang’s Story: A tale told with tangrams

Ann Tompert

Australian Curriculum:  Description

ACMMG009; ACMMG010; ACMMG022; ACMMG042; ACMMG064; ACMMG088; ACMMG089; ACMMG091; ACMMG112; ACMMG113; ACMMG141; ACMMG142; ACMMG165; ACMMG166

Teaching ideas
Constructing tangrams, barrier games, jigsaws, tangram teasers, exploring triangles, oblongs, parallelograms, trapeziums, areas, polygons, hexagons, angles