Whole-y Cow!: Fractions Are Fun

by Taryn Souders, Tatjana Mai-Wyss (Illustrator)

Overview

Learning about fractions isn't always easy, but who says it can't be fun? Using one very entertaining cow, math teacher Taryn Souders has devised a very clever (and fun) way of explaining fractions to beginning learners. One whole cow, calmly eating hay, decided to act differently on this particular day. One whole cow - what should we do? I know! Let's paint one half blue! Prompted by a poem and a visual clue, students are asked to answer what fraction is illustrated in the cow's antics, starting with halves and progressing into thirds, fourths, eighths, and tenths. What fraction of the cow is blue? Answer: ½ What fraction of the cow is white? Answer: ½ With the math problem featured as part of the artwork, students get an immediate sense of how to apply and understand the concept of fractions. How moo-velous! Taryn J. Souders lives in Winter Park, Florida. With a background in math education, she is passionate about keeping math fun for young students. This is her first children's book. Tatjana Mai-Wyss was born in Switzerland. She remembers learning about fractions with the help of a typical Swiss cake. Tatjana has illustrated several children's books and her work has been published in books and magazines in the United States and abroad. She lives in South Carolina.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781585364602
Publisher:	Sleeping Bear Press
Publication date:	08/24/2010
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	639,502
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Taryn J. Souders lives in Winter Park, Florida. With a background inmath education, she is passionate about keeping math fun for youngstudents. This is her first children's book.

Tatjana Mai-Wyss was born in Switzerland. Growing up with her nose in a book, she always wanted to be the one to draw the pictures. Today Tatjana lives in sunny South Carolina where she can work on her screen porch year-round and listen to the birds. Most often she uses watercolor and gouache, adding detail and texture with collage and colored pencils. Her black and white work is usually done the old-fashioned way, in India ink with a dip pen.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 2—This appealing book makes a potentially difficult concept a lot of fun. Souders introduces both the concepts of parts of a whole and parts of a group. She uses a cow to help explain fractions with inviting pictures that match the rhyming text beautifully. Answers to the posed questions appear at the back. The last spread contains many elements to practice the math.—Loreli. E. Stochaj, Franklin School, Summit, NJ

School Library Journal

Souders's debut is a funny look at one whole cow who decides to act differently, allowing readers the chance to practice their fractions. Barely passable rhyming couplets tell of her craziness: "One whole cow sat down to play the cello / while eating a daisy that was orange and bright yellow." Questions in a different type then ask readers to identify the fractional parts of the daisy by looking at the picture. Stunt by goofy stunt, beginning with halves, youngsters work their way up to tenths. The final spread gives the answers beside miniaturized versions of the pictures. Combining watercolors with some collage, Mai-Wyss's illustrations make the book come alive. Her cow is wonderfully wacky, and observant readers will enjoy the antics of her three chicken companions. While the artwork makes it easy for children to see and count the fractional parts, there is no instruction given as to what fractions are or how to make/reduce them, making this more of a practice exercise than a teaching tool. Add in the stumbling verse, and this one's a miss. (Picture book. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews