Math Skills: Grade K (Flash Kids Math Skills Series) Book

1. Wordless/ Concept Picture Book'Shapes
2. This book shows photos of objects in the shapes of cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres.
3. A. Photography/ wordless
B. The back flap of the book states, "Tana Hoban's photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and in galleries around the world." The strengths of this book are definitely found in the photography. Hoban takes a close look at the world of shapes that tantalize the reader's senses. The weakness of this book is the lack of words. Cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres are concepts that may be a bit difficult to understand for a young reader.
C. The photography is very "crisp." For example, in the picture of the boy with the spherical bubble, one can see the sunlight reflect on it causing a rainbow of colors within the bubble. The photos also pay respects to the reader's senses: the reader can "taste" the melting ice cream cones and feel the cool air in the picture of the barn.
Unfortunately, words would be useful in the pictures. How is a beginning reader going to know what is a cube from a cone from a cylinder from a sphere? Words to accompany which photos showed this shape would have been helpful, especially in the photos with more than one shape. For example, the picture of the castle has cones and cylinders.
4. I would recommend showing this book to students AFTER teaching students about cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres. I would also consider bringing this into a geometry classroom to show real life examples of what is being taught.