One Hundred Ways to Get to 100 by Jerry Pallotta. Illustrated by Rob Bolster.

One Hundred Ways to Get to 100 by Jerry Pallotta. Illustrated by Rob Bolster.

Counting by 1′s, 2′s, 4′s, 5′s, 10′s, 20′s, 25′s, 50′s, multiplication, addition, subtraction, division, and 25 pages of illustrating these concepts are a great reason we’ll have this book around for years. Right now we are using it to “count by” and I’ll find my son grab it and go to the page and practice. This book is just a great visual for numbers and their many functions. Also, for Montessori application, it’s a reference to check against. We lay out groups of five and count and then check our book.

 

Ten Little Rabbits by Virginia Grossman and Sylvia Long

Ten Little Rabbits by Virginia Grossman and Sylvia Long.

Ten little rabbits includes a single sentence per page of rabbits as Native Americans. This book is an early introduction to many aspects of Native American lifestyles with counting from one to ten. I bought this for my son when he turned one and we still read it four years later. Ours is a board book, but it’s available as paperback too. It’s a very peaceful book, with very inviting images. This book is NOT one my sons run to choose from the shelf, I usually choose it, but they do say they enjoy it. It has also survived many book weeding out binges, and is EXCELLENT as a short nighttime story.

 

Is There Room on the Bus? by Helen Piers and Hannah Giffard

Is There Room on the Bus? by Helen Piers and Hannah Giffard.

Sam has a bus and he drives around the world, to Burma, Ireland, Thailand, and more. Each stop brings a few more animals into the bus, but there seems to be enough room… This counting book has been read over and over again in our home these past few weeks. If you have any “counters” this one is great and the bonus is the exposure to country names and animals.

 

Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells

Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells

This book is an excellent introduction to money and how quickly it can disappear. Max and Ruby want to buy Grandma a gift, but soon find out it takes more than they thought with bus fare, stops at the laundry mat and more! Quickly Ruby’s money is spent (visually too) from her wallet. Max and Ruby both do buy something Grandma enjoys, something you’d never imagine a Grandma to enjoy. The bonus with this book is the front and back are bunny money for you to copy and print out for your child. The author has directions on how to do this in the back. (She suggests gluing pieces together, we just went without). My son is LOVING his bunny money which is in $1 and $5 increments and he cut out himself because he couldn’t wait for me. We also copied the wallet and stapled it together to hold our money. The book is a quick fun read that will lead to much money exploration, playing store, and more fun.

Author’s Website

For more exploration with money, I have a free download for coins.

 

Dad, I Can’t Sleep by Michael Foreman.

Dad, I Can’t Sleep by Michael Foreman.

I love reading a story to my kids that mimics reality in such a way that it is funny for the parent and the child to read together. This book focuses on the headaches of bedtime, for the parent and the child, in such an amusing way. My preschooler and I were certainly chuckling through this one! The panda bear in the story cannot fall asleep, and his father suggests counting sheep, cows, and many more! Some counting is a bonus here.

 

Twenty is Too Many by Kate Duke.

Twenty is Too Many by Kate Duke.

First of all, let me say THANK GOODNESS it’s not ANOTHER book with mice as the main characters. This one features guinea pigs, which I will take over ANOTHER mouse story. Anyhow, this book is a clever introduction to subtraction for a preschooler/kindergartener, perhaps first grader? Twenty guinea pigs whittle their way down to one, and one is fun! Each page features full size numbers, a minus sign, and the answer to how many are left after each guinea pig wanders away do to interesting conditions. The bottom right of the page shows the subtraction problem in black and white to reinforce the learning. This book proudly supports my theory that if you want to educate your child, you can do it for FREE from the library, because their is a book on EVERY SINGLE topic, math, science, art, history and more. Enjoy this fun math book, my preschooler does!

 

When Sheep Cannot Sleep by Satoshi Kitamura

When Sheep Cannot Sleep by Satoshi Kitamura.

When I asked my preschooler why I should read this again the reply I get is, “I don’t know, I just like it.” We’ve read this book four times in a row, in one sitting. We just like it. It’s a story about a sheep that cannot sleep and who goes for a walk instead. It is also a counting book but not blatantly so. It features one butterfly on one page, two ladybugs on the next, but no mention in the sentences about that. The end does have an index with the featured items to count and we do go back and find them.

 

Dinner at the Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson. Illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott.

Dinner at the Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson. Illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott.

This book is a rhyming book that introduces larger and larger numbers of guests to the Panda Palace for dinner. They always make room for more, and the place is soon buzzing. It has two to four sentences per page.

 

Moja Means One by Muriel Feelings. Pictures by Tom Feelings.

Moja Means One by Muriel Feelings. Pictures by Tom Feelings.

I really enjoy letting my preschooler and toddler pick books because they find things I never would. This book was found by my preschooler and was a lovely surprise. This book counts to ten in Swahili (with pronunciation keys) using traditional African clothes, landmarks, and customs. This was a fun introduction to Swahili and Africa, through something my preschooler really loves, COUNTING!

 

Five Trucks by Brian Floca

Five Trucks by Brian Floca.

A quick read with one sentence per page. My preschooler had it memorized quickly as we read this one over and over. Clever inclusion of ordinal numbers (first through fifth), fun illustrations, and an introduction to airports.