Wow! It's a caravan of trucks, each carrying an exotic load. There are three tigers on the first truck, followed by two more on the next truck. How many tigers in all? Then come trucks filled with different numbers of swans, frogs, horses and even pandas. How many are there of each animal? And where are they headed? And what's hidden under the tarp of driver Jill's extra-wide truck?
Simple addition equations help children to understand basic arithmetical operations.
Illustrated by R.W. Alley.
Ask your child (or students) to point to each animal as you count them together. Ask questions throughout the story, such as: "If there are six swans and one more is added, how many swans will there be in all?"
Look at things when you take trips outside home or classroom. Add up the toys in a sandbox, items in a shopping cart or doughnuts on a bakery shelf.
Ask your child (or students) to write her name using toothpicks. How many toothpicks does it take to make the first two letters? The first three? How many toothpicks does it take to make your whole name?
Teacher Idea: For "Animals on Board," we make circus train cars out of index cards. I cut out circles for wheels that are then glued on. All the students have little circus trains in front of them. Then we take animal crackers and recreate the story. It's very tasty but you can't eat it until you're totally done with the story! Once you've done all of the math, then you can go and eat your animal crackers. —Cathy Kuhns, Country Hills Elementary School, Coral Springs, FL
