Help Us Build a Math Sandwich

Literature and math go together like peanut butter and jelly. I have a wonderful group of 3rd grade students, over 50% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch, with a 25% ELL population. They are a very active students who thrive on a creative and engaging curriculum.

As I go through the 11 units in our math curriculum I want my students to understand how each topic might apply to real world situations. There are books recommended by our math curriculum as well as others I've found in my searches. Using appropriate literature I can provide them with schema before and/or during the lessons that allows their brains to "hook" into the learning.

For example, one of the books I hope to acquire through this grant is about fractions. Two alligators are trying to figure out how to fairly divide up pieces of one pie as more and more animals arrive to share the tasty treat. While they want to be polite, they also realize their shares are getting smaller and smaller. When I borrowed this book from the library last year and read it to my students as we began the unit on fractions, we referred back to it over and over again as we approached new topics. They could see that pie in their minds and realized that a larger denominator actually meant a smaller piece of pie. I want my students to build those connections with every unit.

Having these books in our classroom will give my students a reference for their learning and a way to apply it to something more real than what they see in their math journals. The math that we have is good, just like jelly. But the peanut butter - the literature - will make it even tastier and will help the learning stick with my students longer. Thank you for helping us build a math sandwich using literature and math.