Foundation
The Art of Clean Up: Life made neat and Tidy
Swiss comedian and cabaret artist Ursus Wehrli loves organisation in the extreme. In The Art of Clean Up, Wehrli arranges a bowl of alphabet soup, a group of pool-goers, a spruce branch, and other elements of our chaotic world into neat rows sorted by colour, size, shape or type.
This eye-catching work of inventive organisation reassembles the everyday world as you know it. An inexpensive gift book, it will appeal not only to designers and artists, but to anyone willing to see the world in a new way. Makes you want to turn page after page to see what Ursus will organise next…
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
Baby Goes to Market
Join Baby and his mama at the bustling marketplace for a bright, bouncy read-aloud offering a gentle introduction to numbers.
Rhythmic language, visual humour and a bounty of delectable food make this a tale that is sure to whet little appetites for story time. When Baby and Mama go to market, baby is so adorable that the banana seller gives him six bananas. Baby eats one and puts five in the basket, but Mama doesn’t notice.
As Mama and Baby wind their way through the market stalls, cheeky Baby collects five juicy oranges, four sugary chin-chin biscuits, three roasted sweetcorn, two pieces of coconut ... until Mama notices that her basket is getting very heavy. Poor Baby, she thinks – he must be very hungry by now!
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant
How much does an elephant weigh? How do you know? How would you know if you didn t have a modern scale? Six-year-old Cao Chong, the most famous child prodigy in Chinese history, faced just this problem! Chong watches as the prime minister s most trusted and learned advisors debate different methods. The principle of buoyancy and a little bit of creative thinking help this boy come up with a solution.
This fictional story includes a 4-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 30-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant is vetted by experts and designed to encourage parental engagement. Its extensive back matter helps teachers with time-saving lesson ideas, provides extensions for science, math, and social studies units, and uses inquiry-based learning to help build critical thinking skills in young readers.
Suitable for: Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
Count with Maisy, Cheep, Cheep, Cheep!
Count from one to ten in this farm-themed lift-the-flap book from the multi-award-winning creator of Maisy. It’s bedtime but where have all of Mummy Hen’s chicks gone? Maisy goes in search for them, and you can help too! Lift the flaps along the way to see who’s in the stable, in the tractor, or up in the apple tree. Cluck, cluck, cheep, cheep - find all ten chicks and make sure that they get home safely! It’s more fun with Maisy!
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
A Day In The Salt Marsh
Enjoy a day in one of the most dynamic habitats on earth: the salt marsh. Fun-to-read, rhyming verse introduces readers to hourly changes in the marsh as the tide comes and goes. Watch the animals that have adapted to this ever-changing environment as they hunt for food or play in the sun, and learn how the marsh grass survives even when it is covered by salt water twice a day. An activity on adaptations is included in the "For Creative Minds" section.
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
Equal Shmequal
Mouse and her friends want to play tug-of-war, but they’ll need to use some everyday math to figure out how to make teams that are equal. As Mouse looks at various solutions she is not sure what it means to be equal. Nothing works until Mouse starts to think about it mathematically and divides the teams based on weight. Wonderful illustrations capture Mouse and her animal friends from whiskers to tails as they work to measure and equalize their teams based on size, weight, and effort. A perfect addition to any STEM/STEAM collection that shows readers how math can be used in everyday problem solving.
Suitable for: Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3
Fearless
When a new baby is born it's difficult to tell if it will grow up to be big or small or brave or scared of the dark and spiders. So sometimes babies get the wrong name. It's the same with dogs. So when the Claybourne-Willments, who should have been called the Smiths, got Fearless as a little puppy, it seemed a good name for him. Except Fearless wasn't. How does Fearless finally live up to his name? By accident, of course!
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
Have You Seen My Dragon?
A search-and-find number book! Enter an ornately drawn cityscape and help a little boy find his dragon while counting objects from hot dogs to traffic lights! As the boy travels all over town searching for his dragon friend, can you spot the glorious beast, as well as an array of big-city landmarks and icons - buses, taxis, manhole covers, books, bicycles and more? Is the dragon taking the bus, or breathing his fiery breath below a busy street? Maybe he took a taxi to the zoo or is playing with the dogs in the park. Steve Light’s masterful pen-and-ink illustrations, decorated with meticulous splashes of colour, elevate this counting book (numbers 1-20) to new heights - with brilliant flashes of humour.
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
Knuffle Bunny
Merging expressive cartoon network-esque illustrations with beautiful black and white photographs of Brooklyn, this funny story tells how Trixie and Knuffel Bunny's trip to the laundromat with Dad goes terribly wrong when Trixie realizes some bunny's been left behind...! Her attempts to alert Dad all the way home are unsuccessful, until Mum points out that Knuffel Bunny is missing and the family hotfoot it back to the laundromat. Fortunately, KB is safe, if a little wet...
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
One Minute
In one minute, you can blink your eyes twenty times, hug your dog, plant seeds, say good-bye, watch the rain, or even save a life. So much can occur in this sliver of time—one minute can feel like a singular experience. This poignant picture book is at once an introduction to time for young readers, an ode to living each moment with purpose, and a thoughtful exploration of how children experience one minute (may it seem short or long) playfully, profoundly, and with a boundless sense of possibility.
Suitable for: Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
Press Here
Press Here is the irresistible invitation offered to readers to push the yellow button on the cover of this title—and triggers a magical journey of colour, imagination, and virtual interactivity—all the more remarkable that this adventure has all occured on the flat surface of the simple, printed page.
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
Robyn Boid: Architect
Robyn Boid studied Architecture at the National University, and dreamed of becoming an architect.
Meet Robyn Boid - a small, dedicated bird who loves to build nests and dreams of becoming an architect. She lives at the University, where she listens to the architecture class through the window each day. Eager to learn, Robyn practises building all the important architectural shapes, but all the while, she seeks the perfect design for her very own nest.
This encouraging tale of creative achievement is centred around the journey of a lovable character. Paired with unique and involving illustrations, this is a gentle introduction to the world of architecture.
Suitable for: Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
Shoes from Grandpa
When Grandpa decides to buy Jessie a new pair of shoes for winter, the rest of the family join in with offers of new socks, skirt, blouse, sweater, coat, scarf, hat and mittens. But all Jessie really wants is ...
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
Sort It Out
Packy the Packrat s mother has had enough! It s time that he sorts through his ever-growing collection of trinkets and puts them away. Told in rhyme, the text leads the reader to participate in the sorting process by categorizing Packy s piles of things according to like characteristics and attributes. The story promotes and reinforces analogous thinking a critical thinking skill in math, science, and life. In the For Creative Minds education section at the back of the book, the reader can explore even more attributes and characteristics of objects, including color, size, texture, shape, and material.
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
Ten Apples on Top
Learning to count has never been more fun than in this crazy tale of a dog, a lion and a tiger all showing off how many apples they can balance on their heads as they skip, walk the tightrope and roller skate their way through the book. Dr Seuss books are much loved amongst young audiences.
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
Ten For Me
Two friends take off on a butterfly hunt, only to find themselves tangled in a mathematics net! With a chronicle written in rhyme, award-winning author Barbara Mariconda introduces the narrator and her friend Ed, but who will catch the most butterflies on their addition adventure? "How many in all? Let's add them again!" shout the butterfly hunters. Frustrated by not catching any butterflies their first day out, Rose learns how to attract butterflies to her. As she catches more and more, Ed catches less and less. Who will catch the most, and what does that have to do with metamorphosis? Ten for Me makes math fun, easy, and entertaining, while mixing a touch of the natural world into cross-curricular education! 4-6 pg For Creative Minds educational section in the back 40-60 pg cross-curricular Teaching Activities and 3 Interactive Quizzes available free on the book's homepage eBooks with Auto-Flip, Auto-Read and selectable English and Spanish text and audio.
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
The Waterhole
Down to the secret waterhole the animals all come, As seasons bring forth drought and flood, they gather there as one. United in their common need, their numbers swell to ten, But hidden deep amongst the trees lie ten times that again! The Waterhole is an ingenious fusion of counting book, puzzle book, storybook and art book - an exhilarating journey of discovery, from the plains of Africa and the Jungles of the Amazon to the woodlands of North America and the deserts of outback Australia. Visit graemebase.com
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
What's the Time, Mr Wolf?
What's the time, Mr Wolf? It's story time with Debi Gliori! Accompany Mr Wolf as he goes about his daily routine from breakfast to bedtime - and get to know the real Mr Wolf! Little ones will enjoy recognising familiar faces from a plethora of nursery rhymes, including Little Red Riding Hood (masquerading as the post girl), three cheeky little pigs (who make prank calls), a cat who's a dab hand at the fiddle, plus four and twenty blackbirds ...An enchantingly original story inspired by the well-known playground tag game, this is also perfect for practising telling the time. The stunning artwork reveals something new with every reading and the many fabulous details will keep you turning the pages again and again.
Suitable for: Kindergarten, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2
Which One Doesn’t Belong?
Every colourful page of Christopher Danielson’s children’s picture book, Which One Doesn’t Belong?, contains a thoughtfully designed set of four shapes. Each of the shapes can be a correct answer to the question “Which one doesn’t belong?” Because all their answers are right answers, students naturally shift their focus to justifications and arguments based on the shapes’ geometric properties.
Most curricula treat geometry as little more than vocabulary lessons. Which One Doesn’t Belong? is a powerful, flexible resources that teachers can use to provoke lively discussions and deep learning about shapes with students of all ages.
Suitable for: Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7
These support pages were produced using Strategic Partnership Program funding from the Department of Education and Training.
