How To:
The following is excerpted from Five in a Row. © 1994 - 2008 by Jane Claire Lambert, all rights reserved.

In many of the books chosen for this curriculum, young children ages 4-8 will enjoy finding practical ways to use the new concepts they are learning in Applied Math.

For the youngest, there are many opportunities for counting practice, whether it is counting the stars in a special illustration or pickets of a fence in another. Finding and counting all the corks in Ferdinand can be fun as well as a time for the teacher to see and hear their student count actual objects.

Hexagons are covered in the material of The Bee Tree and an introduction to telling time in The Finest Horse in Town.

Concepts of relative size, measuring, time and money are all found in the stories of children's picture books. A book about quilts for instance offers a chance to talk about geometric shapes. Because the concepts are linked to an enjoyable story, your student will remember them with pleasure.

If time is available make math manipulatives using ideas from the story illustrations. For instance, if you are going to read a book for a week that is about trains, make flash cards with the facts printed inside train cars. Use bright cheerful colors and write the answers on the back. Laminating the cards will help them last. The cards can also contain any term or new concept on one side with the definition on the other.

Reading the lesson story all the way through, enjoying the closeness of the teacher, and the entertainment of the book establishes a good environment for presenting a math lesson derived from the story. Even the lesson will be a shared experience. If there are more math ideas that are appropriate for one day, choose the ones you wish to cover and write them on the planning sheet for the day you wish to cover Applied Math.

Sample Lesson:
The following is excerpted from Volume 1 of Five in a Row. © 1994 - 2008 by Jane Claire Lambert, all rights reserved.

Here's a sample Applied Math lesson taken from Madeline. Every Thursday you'll find several lessons designed to help children understand the real world application of math concepts.

Applied Math:
Beginning Grouping and Dividing Skills

Take forty-eight blocks, pennies, clothes pins or marbles. Using the first twelve to represent the girls, see how many groups of girls you would have if Miss Clavel divided the girls up into groups of two to walk down the stairs. Now, using the second twelve items, see how many groups would be required if Miss Clavel made the girls go to the sink in groups of three. Now, using the last dozen, see how many groups Miss Clavel would have if she had the girls eat in groups of four. Finally, line the "girls" up in two straight lines of six. How many groups are there? (two groups of six)"

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