Rabbit's Pajama Party

MathStart Level 1

by Stuart J. Murphy, Frank Remkiewicz (Illustrator)

Activities Activities In "Rabbit's Pajama Party, the math concept presented is time sequencing. Understanding what comes first, what comes next, what happens after that, and what happens last is important in the development of a child's understanding of mathematics as well as story comprehension.

If you would like to have more fun with the math concepts presented in "Rabbit's Pajama Party, here are a few suggestions: Read the story with the child and describe what is going on in each picture. Ask, " What do you think will happen next?" While reading the story, point out the sequence of events in the pictures. Encourage the child to tell the story using the words " first, " " next, " " then, " and " last." After reading the story, ask, " What happened first?" What happened next?" " Then what happened?" " What was the last thing that happened?" Make a timeline for the story. For example, at 5:00 the friends arrive, at 6:00 they eat pizza, and so on. Together, discuss events that require steps in a particular order or sequence - for example, making a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. Write down the steps as the child dictates them and then make the sandwich, following the steps exactly. If they are not in the correct sequence, discuss what went wrong and make corrections.

Following are some activities that will help you extend the concepts presented in "Rabbit's Pajama Party into a child's life:

Sleepover Party: Plan a sleepover party (real or make-believe). Discuss whom to invite. Make a list of the activities for the party and write each activity, or ask the child to draw a picture of each activity, on a notecard. Then help the child place the pictures in order to show the sequence of events.

Cartoons: Clip out a favorite comic strip from the newspaper. Cut the comic strip into separate frames and ask the child to place the pieces in the right sequence.

Games: Decide on a game that you want to play. As you're playing, talk about the sequence of events involved. What happens first? Then what happens? What would happen if you tried to play the game out of sequence?

Genres: Mathematics, Childrens, Picture Books, Animals

36 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 1999

About the author

PICTURES & WORDS, STORIES & BOOKS
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com

I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.

I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.

I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.

MATHSTART

The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.

The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.

Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )

THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL

Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”

STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN

My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.

I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.

Each book is reviewed by a tea

Reviews

[Jennifer Berg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book to include in an early elementary unit on sequencing; this typically occurs at the start of a unit on time. While most texts include so many events and details, that it is difficult for young children to pick out the most important ones, this text focuses on 6 main events which occur at a pajama party. Young children will easily relate to this story;it is a lot of fun! I would suggest reading this book at the start of a lesson and then copying the small picture cards, at the end of the book, to create sequencing activities for your students to use during group and/or independent practice!

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I shared this book with my children I didn't realize that it's a mathstart book on sequencing. Nicely done! Includes ideas for further sequencing and extending concepts from book.

[Private Account · Rating 1 out of 5]

A bedtime routine would work better for young children. They are not having slumber parties so they can't relate to this. Plus ... I don't need my toddler wanting a slumber party. Or all the junk food featured in this book.

[Ronda Harrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent

[M Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rabbit has a pajama party at his house

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Makes me think of all the slumber parties I had as a kid.

[Kristin Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book obviously helps children with math and sequencing. Math can be a tricky subject for children (and adults like me) , so adding it into a children's book makes it fun and entertaining to read. This book makes math easy to understand. The vocabulary is age appropriate I would say for a 5 to 6 year old. I would highly recommend this book for teachers to read to their students!

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

We've been reading lots of different books in the various MathStart series by Stuart J. Murphy. This book is in the MathStart Level 1 series and introduces the concept of sequencing to children. While there may not be any obvious math lessons within the story, learning about how a story begins, what occurs in the middle and how it ends is an important concept in early literacy and education. This is an entertaining tale and serves to help parents and educators teach children this concept. The illustrations are by Frank Remkiewicz and are reminiscent of his work on the Froggy series. We enjoyed reading this story together.

[Dana Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book because it shows tat you can have great friendships. This also shows how to put things in order of the way this happened.

[Tionna Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. What is better than getting your best friends together eating pizza, ice cream and sharing scary stories all night! This story had great illustrations that went well with the text and the story line. The book even had a few rhyming words throughout the story which I feel is great for children's books. Rabbit's pajama party was short enough to keep young children's attention and just long enough to give you a great ending without wondering what happened after the story ended.

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for children that touches on sequencing. Sequencing is a very important trait for children to really comprehend for their stories and writings to be both readable, understandable, and enjoyable to read. Without this strong trait mastered, it will be difficult for young writers to get their point across to readers.

[Maria E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for language Arts activities. It has an easy and fun vocabulary full of rhyming words that children can practice. It's a easy follow story that can be relative to children daily routine. The characters are animals and it has colorful pictures that will keep children's attention. Ages 3-7 yrs.

[Evelyn Matias · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a cute book on sequencing. I think it could have been done with a little more detail. I felt since it was short that I wizzed through it without reading the details about the pajama party. I do however think there are tons of fun games to be played in order to teach sequencing.

[Linh Tong · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will read this story to the students. They will then retell the story using words such as first, next, then,and last. I will then cut out comic strip stories into separate frames. Students will help me rearrange the frames into their right sequence so that the story will make sense.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that this book encourages talk about sequencing. I think this can be done with most books, but it is nice that the plot sets it up so well with this one.

[Christina Camp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute book about sequencing. It also had a lot of rhyme. It was about a group of friends who had a pajama party.

[Michal Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for sequencing

[Michelle Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perfect for children ages 3-8. Great rhymes and pretty pictures. Sleepovers are so much fun and this book follows little rabbit on his very first one.

[Little Champs]

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