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Fall '08

Elections, Economics
 & MathStart in Spanish! ¡Olé!



    "Story books that make math fun!"

squirrel


If you have difficulty downloading graphics or pictures, click here

birdietan A Note from Stuart
Fall is one of my favorite times of year.  Leaves have more colors than a box of crayons!  And although it's getting chillier, it feels so cozy when you come in from playing outside. Pumpkins, apple cider, curling up with a good storybook - what a great season!

This year, it is also Election Season, which is a perfect time to learn about percentages and pie graphs, just like the kids in The Grizzly Gazette.

Keeping with our current-events theme, Perry the Penguin, the hero of Less than Zero, has a tale to tell of debt and fiscal responsibility. If you can save up enough clams you, too, can buy an ice-scooter! Zip! Zoom! Varoom!

Meanwhile, the Fair Bear Share cubs are busy harvesting fruit for pie (m'mmmm) - regrouping by 10s to count up their bounty.

Over at Farmer Bill's, snow is the air, which means it's time for the farmer and all his animals to put on their mittens. It's amazing how many Missing Mittens there can be!

Finally, I have some especially good news to share: 15 MathStart books are now available in Spanish language libraries through Pearson / Scott Foresman.

For activities and more on all of the above , keep reading!

Best wishes,

stuart signature clear

p.s. I am thrilled to be speaking at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in Dallas this year on Thursday, November 6 at 4 p.m.. Check the catalog for the room number. I hope to see you there!

content quick links
¡Libros de MathStart en español!
Election Results in the Grizzly Gazette! (Percentages)
Less Than Zero: Negative Numbers, Fiscal Responsibility & Ice Scooters!
A Fair Bear Share: Regrouping (by 10s) for M'mmm PIe!
Missing Mittens! (Odds & Evens)

¡Libros de MathStart
en español!

                                            

Teachers & Homeschoolers!

Pearson Education, as part of its Scott Foresman - Addison Wesley enVisionMATH program, now offers sets of MathStart books in Spanish for educators.

Each set includes 5 books, along with a teacher's guide.

To order, call 800.848.9500. These are only available to teachers and homeschoolers and only available as complete sets. (You can buy each of the three libraries separately, or all of them, or multiple sets, but cannot purchase individual titles).

Click here for more info!

To celebrate, we selected three titles from the new math libraries and created Activity Page pdfs in Spanish and English.
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grizzlygazetteRead All About It!
Election Results (Percentages) in the Grizzly Gazette!


Elections are exciting and the election at Camp Grizzly is no exception. At stake is the honor of wearing the famous Grizzly Bear costume, lead all 100 campers in the Grizzly Parade and a photo displayed forever in the Grizzly Bear Hall of Fame.

The competition for votes is fierce, with the "undecided swing voters" up for grabs. The only sure thing: 100% of camp squirrels prefer acorn broccoli. Chart that!

downloadgraphictan








perrythepenguinpumpkinLess Than Zero: Negative Numbers, Fiscal Responsibility and Ice Scooters!

Less Than Zero has always been a popular book (a "Best Book of the Year" from AAAS Science Books & Films magazine and an Oppenheim Gold Seal award winner), but these days, it seems, everybody wants to read about Perry the Penguin - even my banker!

Perry really, really, really wants an ice-scooter that costs 9 clams. The trouble is he also has a weakness for fishy floats and the Ice Circus and borrows clams from his friends to pay for them. Will he ever be able to save up all the clams he needs?
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lessthanzerobookcover











bear cubA Fair Bear Share:
Regrouping (by 10s)
for M'mmm Pie!

Fair Bear ShareMama Bear wants to make her special Blue Ribbon Blueberry Pie, but it's up to her four cubs to gather enough nuts, berries and seeds. Three of the cubs go at it with gusto, adding up their treasures by arranging them in groups of tens and ones. But they don't have enough! Will their little sister-the one who spent the afternoon skipping, running and turning cartwheels-come through and save the day?

Activity Page pdf
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Help Your Kids
Be Better at Math!


MATHSTART
63 Books!
/ 3 Levels!
Pre-K to
Grade 4!

www.stuartjmurphy.com


Where to BUY
MATHSTART Books!


buy books
.


List of ALL 63 Titles!


one pager
When this pdf is viewed online, the titles are live links to book description pages. Wow!
 

Missing Mittens!
(Odds & Evens)

missing mittens

Activity Page pdf

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B'rrrr. It's a cold snowy day and Farmer Bill is missing one of his mittens. The cow, three chickens and two horses are in the same pickle. Instead of having an even 2, 4, 6 or 8 mittens for their hands, hooves and feet, they've got 1, 3, 5 and 7. How odd! Can you guess who the barnyard mitten thief is?

Special Features For BOOKSELLERS &
LIBRARIANS


for booksellers & librarians

Artwork for signs for stores, libraries and Family Math Nights, and forms for
special orders


 

Go Beyond the Stories: ACTIVITIES!


activities
 
Extend the learning beyond the stories and have lots of fun, too!





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MATHSTART ILLUSTRATORS



Making a MathStart book is a collaborative  process that takes nearly two years to get the balance of pictures, words and math just right. Nearly three dozen illustrators have worked with me on Mathstart, to combine gorgeous illustrations with visual learning strategies.

Work by the following illustrators is featured in this newsletter:

JoAnn Adinolfi
from Leaping Lizards


Steve Bjorkman
from The Grizzly Gazette


G. Brian Karas
from Missing Mittens

Edward Miller
from A House for Birdie


Frank Remkiewicz
from Less Than Zero

John Speirs
from A Fair Bear Share