Brilliant Picture Books for Integrating Maths in the IB PYP

I’m an avid believer in making maths an adventure of discovery and creation rather than simply an expected chore. By integrating maths into our units of inquiry and making it an authentic experience, we are dispelling the myth that maths is boring and we turn our learners into investigators, truth seekers and explorers! Far more exciting already, don’t you think?

I’m well aware of how tricky it can be to integrate maths into all of our units of inquiry and so there are several alternative routes that I turn to when the going gets tough, which I’ll be sharing soon in a future post. But for today, I want to share how picture books are one of the easiest ways to bring the adventure back to your maths lessons.

Here are some of my favourites that I’ve found provoke inquiry and are simple to slot into multiple units of inquiry, whilst covering many maths standards. Many of them are flexible enough to adapt for all ages. You can link directly to each book for more information by clicking on the  titles or images. This will take you directly to Amazon. So, grab a cuppa, read on and explore. 

If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World’s People, 2nd Edition (CitizenKid)

This is such a fabulous book that explores the population of the world by comparing it to a village. It looks at the large numbers of populations and reduces them significantly, thus ratios are explored as well as place value. It allows for integration into any unit that looks at mapping, communities, human rights and responsibilities, religions of the world and continents. I have used

this book with 3rd grades up to 6th grades and I even have an inquiry based maths resource that specifically integrates the information from the book. The project culminates with the building of a 3D village, as it also explores geometry and measure. 

How Much Is a Million?

Another fabulous book by David Schwartz. It explores the enormity of a million by comparing it to things that the children can imagine. For example, if you had to count to one million, it would probably take you about 23 days. With statements like this, I use it to explore what we wonder and we suggest different ways to compare a million. Some examples of questions that the children have come up with are:

• How much room would 1 million elephants need?
• What is the smallest number ever?
• If it took 23 days to count to 1 million, how long would it take to count to 1 BILLION? 

I then let them investigate ways to solve their own problems and even to decide whether or not they can they be solved? You’ll be amazed at their creativity! Of course, as facilitator, I like to lead them towards strategies that we are investigating for our current maths standards too.

Pythagoras and the Ratios: A Math Adventure (Charlesbridge Math Adventures)

These Pythagoras books by Julie Ellis are cleverly written with the use of puns for maths vocabulary that the children love to identify. As Pythagoras explores the pattern of music and timing, the concept of ratios comes up and I bring this into our maths exploration with the use of musical instruments. Kids LOVE this! There’s so much to explore looking at sheet music and how it is broken down, the pattern of music and how we connect this with patterns in numbers and ultimately ratios. By creating their own music, using a variety of instruments, the children explore pattern, number,counting on and scale. With questions such as: Where else do we see pattern in maths? and How else can we use pattern and grouping techniques?, it is something that can be adapted to suit little kids all the way up to calculating problems with ratios for big kids. It is an easy book to incorporate into any How We Express Ourselves theme.

What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras? (Charlesbridge Math Adventures)

This is a great book for all age levels since the maths can be so easily adapted for whatever level you’re teaching.

Another adventure with Pythagoras,  this time diving into geometry, it explores angles and how they connect with buildings. I have integrated this book with inquiries into architecture and different structures, into ancient civilizations and their inventions and also into how we express ourselves through design and architecture. The investigations can be very hands on with the children creating their own designs through various STEM activities, along with learning to identify and/or measure angles. Great for Where We Are in Place and Time, How We Express Ourselves and How We Organise Ourselves.

The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos

Another book for all ages, it tells the tale of a little boy who travels the world, noticing all of the maths all around him, often stopping by prominent world sites. I love to use this book when we are investigating maths all around us. It is brilliant to have the children brainstorm their observations of everyday maths and it leads to some very interesting inquiries such as: Who invented weight? Why do we use our numbers and not other symbols for numbers? When was the first ruler invented? Who made maths? Our inquiry board always overflows with the children’s inquiries after this book, making it easy to create a maths centred, student led inquiry. 

Older grades can adapt it to travel and journeys, mapping, distance and even for research skills. It lends itself naturally to inquirers.

With younger grades, it ties in well with any Who We Are theme, regardless of your central idea. It can be a standalone unit within your unit. It’s also easy to plan around units inquiring into shopping, money, communities and our world/environment .

Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter (Math Adventures)

I have used this book with 2nd grade up to 5th grade as both an introduction to perimeter and area, as well as a review. I just love how it is also filled with puns using maths vocabulary. Always brings a giggle to those in the know!

With these books, there are actually activities that can be copied in class throughout the tales.

All of the Sir Cumference series of books are just amazingly easy to integrate into your units of inquiry. They are written by a third grade teacher. You really just have to adapt to the level of maths that you’re looking for. I recommend that you explore all of the options available. I have integrated these books with units exploring conquerors, travellers and explorers, space, structures and architecture, ancient civilisations as well as mythical creatures and fairy tales! I have integrated geometry by designing flags, coats of arms and modes of travel using 2D shapes and lines and angles, we have created planets of the solar system and measured the diameter and circumference of our models using “Sir Cumference and the First Round Table”.  I’m telling you, they are SO easy to fit in maths investigations of all shapes, sizes and levels! Puns intended! 

The Grapes Of Math

With rhyme and riddles, this book is engaging for all age levels, as they try to solve and keep up with the problems. I love to follow up this book with the exploration into how many different ways we can solve problems. It’s a fabulous way to practice collaborative thinking. You can see how this could be integrated into anything at all age levels. The provocation doesn’t have to be mathematical. It can be any problem, such as: How will we carry all of those books downstairs to the library? From there, you can have the children come up with multiple strategies by themselves. This of course leads you into maths problems at your students’ level. It’s fun to use for illustrating grouping strategies, tying in with all four operations. And, of course, any unit that inquires into poetry and writing.

A Place for Zero (Charlesbridge Math Adventures)

The illustrations in this book are just adorable. They actually led to a place value activity where we had to express

ourselves by designing our own digits, creating 3 and 4 digit numbers out of them and finally ordering them within our small groups. A simple but effective way to add maths into our How We Express Ourselves unit. (You can find this unit in my store by clicking here.)

This is a wonderful book for looking at place value and addition for younger children. It can also be used to explore the importance of zero with older children too. When I posed the central idea: “A world without zero would be drastically altered.” ,the investigations that arose were incredible! Groups worked together to come up with the myriad of issues that this would present. They then shared their possible solutions. The ideas were all shared and the BEST debate ensued! Try it with your older kids! Or even your younger kids! The discussions will blow your mind!

By using picture books within our maths, I’ve found that the inquiry process is naturally enhanced. With inquiries using maths we have to experiment and, with experiments, questions arise. From those questions, the children come up with their own connections to the maths in question, the unit of inquiry and the real world around them.

I hope that you have got some useful ideas from this post and please do share your own ideas too. I love to learn from others! If you’re interested in more planning tips for maths, I will be sharing a cheat sheet for maths planning soon, along with the post detailing other ideas for integrating maths into your units of inquiry.  Make sure you’re subscribed to my mailing list so that you don’t miss out.

Enjoy!