Sizing Up Winter

by Lizann Flatt, Ashley Barron (Illustrations)

As young readers journey into the natural world, they will discover that numbers, patterns, shapes — and much more! — can be found in everyday plants and animals. What if animals and plants knew math, just like us? Would snowflakes all fall from the same height in the sky? Would otters spread themselves evenly across lakes? Would groundhogs be aware of the date? In Sizing Up Winter, the third title in the Math in Nature series, nature comes to life to help children grasp concepts of time and measurement.

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Animals, Nonfiction, Storytime, Childrens, Nature

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2013

About the author

Lizann Flatt has written many nonfiction books and numerous short stories and poems for kids. Her latest picture book series includes COUNTING ON FALL, SORTING THROUGH SPRING, SIZING UP WINTER, SHAPING UP SUMMER. What if animals knew math? The series invites kids to practice primary math skills and learn a bit about nature. Her LET'S GO! THE STORY OF GETTING FROM THERE TO HERE is the history of transportation in North America. It was selected as the Canadian Children's Book Centre's TD Grade One Giveaway book in 2009 and given to over 400,000 grade one kids in Canada. Lizann's work has also appeared in LADYBUG, BABYBUG, and HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN magazines. She was formerly the editor of Canadian children’s magazine CHICKADEE. Today she lives in rural Muskoka, Ontario, Canada.

Reviews

[Angela De Groot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how this book uses winter, nature, and animals to introduce readers to concepts of measurement, comparison, counting and time. Interactive and educationally challenging. Lovely collage art.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ashlee Barron’s gorgeous, cut-paper collage illustration technique is the perfect complement to the provocative, eloquently phrased scientific questions posed to the reader in this fabulous combination of art, science, math and poetry that spans the elementary school curriculum. The winter season is the setting against which Barron’s illustrations are set, offering interesting patterns, bright pops of color and visual depth to delight the eye, even as Flatt’s questions challenge the mind. On each page one finds a poetic, interactive math problem for which readers must use the illustrations provided to supply the answer. Also included in the text are rare vocabulary words, like “analog” and “ptarmigan.” Additionally, there are “Nature Notes” at the back of the book that offer even more information and details about each of the “winter friends” featured in Barron’s wonderful illustrations throughout the book.
Extension idea: Possibilities for extension activities with this book are numerous. For an art connection, one might allow the participants to experiment with cut-paper collage technique using different tactile pieces like sandpaper, corrugated cardboard, tissue and regular construction paper to create their own winter scene. To challenge older readers, one might have them create and include their own visual math problem like the ones posed in the book and share them with the rest of the group if they like. Other ideas include making cut-paper snowflakes, or using Ellison die cuts to make bird (or other animal shapes) of varying colors and sizes and then using them to create patterns. As a fun real-life component, families might be encouraged to conduct a nature walk in the snow and look for animal footprints, bird-watch, or even gather snow in clear plastic cups to take home and measure the volume before and after the snow melts. Opportunities for making sequencing cards and discussing time in terms of clocks and calendars also exist. As a final science connection, you could ask the children if they noticed the special “winter light show” depicted in the book and then segue into a description of the Aurora Borealis as well.

[Andie Dole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was actually surprised by this book. First off, the use of unconventional animal choices (such as weasels, musk ox, and snow flea) and there’s actual mathy math stuff. That’s one sneaky counting book!

The rhymes kind of sucked though. Started off promising and then tapered out to repetitiveness

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for elementary kids who are learning math and seasons. Each page has activities and questions posed by the author which require critical thinking on the part of the reader. The illustrations are unique and the colors are vibrant.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book, but assumes the reader already knows words like mass or how to estimate. Bold illustrations. Back matter adds some science/nature facts to supplement the rhyming text (which focuses on measurement).

[Ayşe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kitabı gerçekten çok beğendim dili şiirsel soruları da güzel..Tasarımı kolaja benziyor üçüncü bir boyut katmış. Kitap aynı anda mevsime, boyutlara, hayvanlara değinmiş istediğiniz açıdan okuyabilirsiniz...

[Christine Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

As young readers journey into the natural world, they will discover that numbers, patterns, shapes, can be found in everyday plants and animals. What if animals and plants knew math, just like us? Would snowflakes all fall from the same height in the sky? Would otters spread themselves evenly across lakes? Would groundhogs be aware of the date? In Sizing Up Winter , the third title in the Math in Nature series, nature comes to life to help children grasp concepts of time and measurement.

This book deals with a lot of concepts, and will work well for an older child who already has some background knowledge of winter.

I wish they would have broken the concepts down into single categories for a series of books. That being said, I do like the illustrations and over all it is well done. This book might work for a very small storytime group,where you can interact more with the children. However, it is best suited for individual and/or one-on-one reading.


Subjects


Measurement -- Juvenile literature


Winter -- Juvenile literature

Note:illustrated by Ashley Barron.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting math questions incorporated into pretty collage pictures. definitively helps parents know how to dialogue about a book (or at least how to dialogue about these specific math concepts).

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great picture book/non-fiction for K - 2. Illustrations and fact page at the end are similar to Steve Jenkins' work.

[Bekka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations are lovely. I think I used this book with too young a crowd, but that was the age I needed it for. Used for a STEAM-themed story time for ages 3-5. Many of the mathematical sizes were beyond them and/or some of the pages had more text than I wanted to use, so I ended up reading only some of it aloud.

[Nicoleta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mihalț, biban în apă. Nevăstuica își schimbă culoarea. Bufnița polară e diurnă.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

its okay, better for one on one reading rather than a storytime

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2

A lot of interactive questions. Probably not for the youngest learners.

[Brandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...interactive, lyrical, and artful foray into the world of numbers and nature..." Yes! We really enjoyed this book! Beautiful artwork.