Math Picture Book Library | Creative Learning Studio | School of Education

Have you ever read a children’s book and noticed or wondered about something you could solve using mathematics? Using picture books to pose mathematical problems has several benefits:

Children are familiar with picture books, providing friendly and relatable contexts.
Children can make connections with the characters to solve meaningful problems.
The everyday contexts of picture books also help children talk about their reasoning when problem-solving.
The pictures within the books often create meaningful representations for children as they consider the mathematical problem.

Each task in this bank is written using the Launch, Explore, Summarize lesson plan format and includes a link to a chart to anticipate student strategies and monitor student strategies and thinking as they work through the problems. Tasks also include a recording sheet where applicable. They are meant to be used as ideas. Please make changes and adaptations as necessary for the students in your class. All of the ideas for the tasks in this bank are common picture book math problems or were created by UVU School of Education Faculty.

The picture books and manipulatives in these tasks are available through the UVU School of Education Creative Learning Studio. The books were funded through the STEM Action Center Utah Math Innovation Grant. There are only a few copies of each book. Most of these books are also available at your local library or the school library.

If you use one of these tasks, please complete our Picture Book Task Survey so that we can learn more about your experience teaching, how students solve problems, and improve our Picture Book Task Bank.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or [email protected].

Lesson Plans

Early Number Tasks

Grade	Lesson Title	Picture Book	Standard(s)	Big Idea
K	Picnic Table Subitizing	Feast for 10 By Cathryn Falwell	K.CC.5	Subitizing
1	How Many Animal Feet?	The Little Blue Truck By Alice Schertle	1.NBT.1 1.OA.5	Counting, Skip Counting, Relate counting to addition
1	Pieces of Fruit	The Very Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle	1.NBT.1 1.OA.5	Counting, Relate counting to addition
1	Snails and Crabs Numbers Pictures	One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab	1.NBT.1 1.NBT.2	Represent a number between 1 and 120

Addition and Subtraction Tasks

Grade	Lesson Title	Picture Book	Standard(s)	Big Idea
K	Decomposing Ten	Ten Flashing Fireflies By Philemon Sturges	K.OA.3	Decomposing 10
1	Mouse Gets the Cheese	Mouse Mess By Linnea Asplind Riley	1.OA.8 1.OA.5	Adding 3 or more numbers
1	Doubling Pot	Two of Everything By Lily Toy Hong	1.OA.6	Doubling sums
2	Too Many Shoes	Centipede's 100 Shoes By Tony Ross	2.NBT.5 2.OA.1	Addition within 100, skip counting
2	Birthday Surprise	Night Noises By Meme Fox	2.NBT.6	Adding multiple numbers

Multiplication and Division Tasks

Grade	Lesson Title	Picture Book	Standard(s)	Big Idea
4	Acts of Kindness	I am One By Susan Verde	4.NBT.5	Multi-Digit Multiplication
3	Dinner Time!	Six Dinner Sid By Inga Moore	3.OA.1 3.OA.3	Single Digit Multiplication
4	Sharing Cookies	The Doorbell Rang By Pat Hutchins	None listed	Remainders
4	Hungry Ants	One Hundred Hungry Ants By Elinor J. Pinczes	4.OA.4	Prime and Composite Numbers

Rational Number Tasks

Grade	Lesson Title	Picture Book	Standard(s)	Big Idea
4	Valuable Shapes	The Warlord's Puzzle By Virginia Pilegard	4.NF.3	Decomposing Fractions
5	Slices of Cake	The Lion's Share By Matthew McElligot	5.NF.4	Multiplying Fractions
6	Animal Pictures	Picture Pie By Ed Emberley	5.NF.1	Adding Unlike Denominators

Geometry Tasks

Grade	Lesson Title	Picture Book	Standard(s)	Big Idea
K	Mystery Shapes	Mouse Shapes By Philemon Sturges	K.G.1	Identify Shapes
1, 2	School Shapes	City Shapes By Diana Murray	1.G.1 2.G.1	Attributes of Shapes
3	Sorting Shapes	Round is a Tortilla By Roseanne Thong	3.G.1	Sorting shapes with shared attributes
4	Museum Shapes	I Spy Shapes in Art By Lucy Micklethwait	4.G.2 4.G.3	Lines of Symmetry; Parallel and Perpendicular Lines; Acute, Obtuse, and Right Angles

Measurement and Data Tasks

Grade	Lesson Title	Picture Book	Standard(s)	Big Idea
K	Sorting Buttons	The Button Box By Margarette Reid	K.MD.3	Sorting
1	What Do You See?	Duck! Rabbit! By Amy Krouse Rosenthal	1.MD.4	Organize, Represent, and Interpret Data
1, 2	What If You Had Kangaroo Feet?	What If You Had Animal Feet? By Sandra Markle	1.MD.2 2.MD.1	Linear Measurement
2	Help the Apprentice!	How Big is a Foot By Rolf Myller	2.MD.1 2.MD.2	Standard Units
4, 5	How Much Longer?	Actual Size By Steve Jenkins	4.MD.1 5.MD.1	Customary Conventions
5	Animal Hair	What If You Had Animal Hair By Sandra Markle	1.MD.2 2.MD.1 5.NF.1	Measuring to nearest 1/4, Adding/Subtracting Mixed Numbers
6	Buying Soil	Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood By Tony Hillery and Jessie Hartland	6.MD.2	Volume with Fractions

Mathematical Modeling Tasks

Grade	Lesson Title	Picture Book	Standard(s)	Big Idea
3-6	Soul Food Sunday	Soul Food Sunday By Winsome Bingham	None listed	Fractions, Money/Decimal Operations
3-6	Fry Bread	Fry Bread By Kevin Noble Mallard	None listed	Fractions, Money/Decimal Operations
K-6	Actual Size	Actual Size By Steve Jenkins	None listed	Measurements
2-6	Harlem Grown	Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood By Tony Hillery and Jessie Hartland	None listed	Area, Perimeter

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How do you plan to use the items?	How many students will you work with?
How many teachers will you work with? (if only yourself, please put 1)	What Professional Development workshop have you participated in?

CLS | Math Picture Book Library

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