Reviews for Karen's Magic Garden

The average rating for Karen's Magic Garden based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-04-10 00:00:00 Tracy Difillippo Math read alouds aren't my favorite, but so necessary in a primary room from time to time. We've been on a quick focus of defining even and odd numbers. It's a pretty cut and dry topic amidst our expansive math curriculum. At the end of last week, it was evident that I had a few students still struggling to identify and define consistently. My hope is that this silly story read aloud, on top of another lesson and discussion today, will help further build some connections. Of math read alouds, this one is so silly and allows for expanded commentary and details to make students laugh and connect to the topic. It served my intended purpose, and that's all I can ask for!

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-19 00:00:00 Bradley Calcaterra This is a book about two cousins Steven and Todd; it shows how the personalities of two people clashes because Steven cares for even numbers while Todd cares for odd numbers. Steven likes all of his things in even numbers. He lives in a two story house with 4 bikes, 6 cats, 8 gerbils, ten gold fish, and a flower garden with 12 sprinklers. Soon, his cousin Todd comes to town with his odd ways. He throws in his odd ways into Steven's even life and things get a bit sticky. At the end of this book, there are great discussion questions to help students apply what they read to their own lives and situations. This is a great book for children which allows them to discover what odd and even numbers are. This will also be helpful in teaching skip counting to kids from a young age so that it will be helpful for kids when they get into multiplication and higher mathematical topics. It could be used in the classroom as a starter, then the teacher could pair all the students, and they could all make up their own number stories, and then in the end try to sum up all the numbers. This book would be fun for two students to act out Todd and Steven, and the class would have to decide if a number is even or odd and point to the character. There are so many mathematical possibilities with this book and would be best with EYFS through to KS1