Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Zero Is The Leaves On The Tree

Zero Is The Leaves On The Tree by Betsy Franco appears to be a book about the fall or winter season and I picked it up for that reason.  I was pleasantly pleased to find out it's more.  It's about mathematics and a concept assumed children often just understand and they may not.  How do you count zero?  Every other number can be attached to an object or a group of objects.  Betsy Franco does a fantastic job of finding examples of 0 easily found in our daily lives, nature, and scenarios children may have experiences with.  Here are two examples;  "Zero is...the balls in the bin at recess time.  Zero is...the sound of snowflakes landing on your mitten."  As a teacher make sure you read the inside jacket cover and keep these questions in your mind as you think about helping children understand 0.

Can you see it?
Can you hear it?
Can you feel it?

Thank you Betsy Franco for making zero more concrete.

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