Math Mentor Texts Linky: Stuart J. Murphy

I'm linking up with the lovely ladies at Collaboration Cuties for Must Read Mentor Texts: math edition! This year, we read several books by Stuart J. Murphy. He is a GENUIS at writing simple stories that clearly illustrate math concepts. We read:



Tally O'Malley

Plot: A family plays a game where they tally what they see on their vacation. By the end of the book, my students were bursting at the seams to tally everything, too! Seriously...I've never before seen students so ready to tally!


More or less

Plot: A boy is guessing people's age by asking more than/less than questions. Not only does it teach more and less, but also asking good questions. Good for higher-level thinking.


It's About Time!

Plot: This is a really simple book about time to the hour. A child goes through the day telling what time he does different activities.

This was helpful for my firsties because they had NO idea what time they did anything! They didn't know what time they woke up or ate dinner or went to bed. Because of this, we made a time number line. First, we made a list of what we did each hour of the day, which like I said they had no clue about. Then, each child picked an hour of the day and illustrated a picture of what happened at that time. We put the pictures in order (making sure to pay close attention to AM and PM) and hung it up on a clothesline. We referred back to this ALL the time during our time unit! It helped kids see time as a linear thing, understand a day is made up of two 12 hour segments called AM and PM, and realize we do certain activities at certain times. So helpful!

There are TONS of other Stuart J. Murphy books. Check out some of his other books on Amazon by clicking HERE.