Year 3
365 Penguins
The penguins are back, in a new format and with a fresh new cover! The family in 365 Penguins finds a penguin mysteriously delivered to their door every day for a year. At first they’re cute, but with every passing day, the penguins pile up—along with the family’s problems. Feeding, cleaning, and housing the penguins becomes a monumental task. They’re noisy and smelly, and they always hog the bathroom! And who on earth is sending these kwak-ing critters? Bright, striking illustrations with lots of opportunity for counting (and lots of laughs), 365 Penguins has become a perennial wintertime favorite since it first came out in 2006.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
In the beginning, Bartholomew Cubbins didn't have five hundred hats. He had only one hat. It was an old one that had belonged to his father and his father's father before him. It was probably the oldest and the plainest hat in the whole Kingdom of Didd, where Bartholomew Cubbins lived. But Bartholomew liked it - especially because of the feather that always pointed straight up in the air.
Suitable for: Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
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
The Bad Tempered Ladybird
In this comical story, Eric Carle explores the concepts of size and time, using his trademark collage style with lots of bold colour and beautiful illustrations.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
The Doorbell Rang
Ma has made a dozen delicious cookies. It should be plenty for her two children. But then the doorbell rings - and rings and rings.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
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
Charlie Weatherburn and the Flying Machine
A 32 page children's picture book which is suitable for primary school students. Charlie loves mathematics and uses his skills to achieve the unthinkable: solo flight. Hilarious, rhyming verses and lively, colourful illustrations combine to create a book that young children and adults alike will relish again and again.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
Clocks and More Clocks
When the hall clock reads twenty minutes past four, the attic clock reads twenty-three minutes past four, the kitchen clock reads twenty-five minutes past four, and the bedroom clock reads twenty-six minutes past four, what should Mr. Higgins do? He can't tell which of his clocks tells the right time. He is in for a real surprise when the Clockmaker shows him that they are all correct!
Suitable for: Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
Counting on Frank
Frank loves to calculate things. He knows how many humpback whales would fit in his house. He knows how long it would take to fill his bathroom with water. But can Frank guess the number of jellybeans in the jar?
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
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
Fibonacci Zoo
When Eli and his father visit an unusual zoo, they count the creatures in each exhibit. Eli sees one alligator, then one bison, and next two camels. Soon a number pattern emerges and Eli thinks he can predict how many animals will be in the next exhibit. Explore the zoo with Eli as he runs ahead to test his hypothesis.
Suitable for: Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7
Fractions in Disguise
When a valuable fraction goes missing, George Cornelius Factor (a.k.a. GCF) vows to track it down. Knowing that the villainous Dr. Brok likes to disguise his ill-begotten fractions, GCF invents a Reducer—a tool that strips away the disguise, reducing the fraction and revealing its true form. Equal parts of action and humor add up to a wholly entertaining introduction to simplifying fractions.
Suitable for: Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
How Full Is Your Bucket?
Every moment matters. Each of us has an invisible bucket. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When it's empty, we feel awful. Yet most children (and many adults) don't realize the importance of having a full bucket throughout the day. In How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids, Felix begins to see how every interaction in a day either fills or empties his bucket. Felix then realizes that everything he says or does to other people fills or empties their buckets as well. Follow along with Felix as he learns how easy it can be to fill the buckets of his classmates, teachers and family members. Before the day is over, you'll see how Felix learns to be a great bucket filler, and in the process, discovers that filling someone else's bucket also fills his own.
Suitable for: Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat
The paperback edition of a picture book full of joyful colour and energy, about a timid girl who finds the courage to live life on her own terms, with the help of a travelling minstrel and his dancing cat. Milli could take a thing that was a nothing and turn it into a something. She could find any old forgotten this or that, give it a bit of a wiggle, and transform it into something amazing. But no one in her town valued what Milli could do, and she was far too shy to insist. No one ever wanted anything special. So Milli spent her time making brown shoes, black shoes and plain old work boots. But then comes the day two vagabonds roll into town - crazy Jack and his dancing cat. Sturdy new boots are exactly what they need, but what can they give Milli in exchange? Dancing lessons! So they teach her jazz and ballet and tap. They do the two-step, the three-step and the tricky-twisting-backward-slide-four-step. And Milli begins to feel brave and free. So she makes them the most beautiful shoes she can imagine. She rustles up a few amazing things for herself, too. And eventually even the townspeople have to take notice.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7, Year 8
Moonlight Crab Count
Even kids can get involved in science! Ecologist Dr. Neeti Bathala and Jennifer Keats Curtis collaborate to bring us the story of these adventurous citizen scientists. Leena and her mom volunteer each summer to count the horseshoe crabs that visit their beach. With their dog Bobie at their sides, the duo spends a night on the shore surveying horseshoe crabs who have come to mate and lay eggs. Readers will learn valuable facts about these ancient animals and how they can get involved in the effort to conserve horseshoe crabs.
This fictional story includes a 4-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 26-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. Moonlight Crab Count 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: Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5
Mr Archimedes' Bath
Every time Mr Archimedes has a bath with his friends, the water overflows. Somebody must be putting extra water in the bath. Is it Kangaroo? Or is it Goat or Wombat? Whoever it is, Mr Archimedes is going to find out.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5
Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin is back! This time he's making mischief with his multiplying stick. Can Peter unlock the secret of the stick in time to save the kingdom? Whimsical illustrations bring fun to multiplying whole numbers and fractions.
Suitable for: Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
My Even Day
n this delightful, rhythmic sequel to One Odd Day, the young boy awakens to find that it is another strange day, now everything is even, and his mother has two heads! This time, a school field trip to the zoo is dealt with in an odd, but even-handed manner. And, like its predecessor, children will spend hours looking for all the hidden objects in the incredible art. Square it all off with more "number fun" in the "For Creative Minds" section. All Sylvan Dell titles feature free educational resources at www.SylvanDellPublishing.com, including the "For Creative Minds" sections and additional teaching activities. The "For Creative Minds" Section of My Even Day features the following activities: Even numbers have a match Zero an even number, Counting by twos, Square numbers: odd or even, Creative Sparks pairs, Defenders of the Truth: Math Riddles. Learning Magazine's 2008 Teachers' Choice Award
Suitable for: Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
My Half Day
The wacky fun continues as a young boy awakens to find a half-head of hair. After chugging down his glass of milk that s two-thirds gooey paste, he and his friend are off to camp for a day of fraction fun and an out-of-this world soccer game. The first two books in the series, One Odd Day and My Even Day, won a Learning Magazine s 2008 Teachers Choice Award for Children s Books. As with the series other books, the imaginative illustrations are sure to please young readers as they scour the pages for countless oddities hidden in the art! The For Creative Minds learning section includes Fractions Around Us and A Special Pizza Party activities."
Suitable for: Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
One Hundred Hungry Ants
Hi dee ho! It's off to a picnic we go! One hundred very hungry ants hurry to sample the delights of a picnic, but marching in single file seems too slow for 100 empty tummies. The smallest ant of all suggests they travel in 2 rows of 50, four rows of 25 . . . and the division begins. One Hundred Hungry Ants is not only a spirited and whimsical story, but also serves as an enjoyable visual introduction to math.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab
If one is a snail and two is a person ... we must be counting by feet! This is a fantastic story to stimulate children’s counting skills and could be used in any primary classroom. The discussion may include skip counting and other rich mathematical discussion promoting additive and multiplicative thinking. This book can be used for a whole class mathematical investigation.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
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
One Odd Day
One Odd Day is a humorous, rhythmic, read-aloud story about a boy who awakens to find that everything around him is "odd." His shirt has three sleeves and his dog has five legs. . . Things are no better at school either. Will his odd day end when he goes to bed that night? Children will delight in finding all the "odd" items and numbers hidden in the art! This great introduction to the concept of odd and even numbers is supplemented by odd fun facts, number games, and the art! All Sylvan Dell titles feature free educational resources at www.SylvanDellPublishing.com, including the "For Creative Minds" sections and additional teaching activities. Learning Magazine's 2008 Teachers' Choice Award
Suitable for: Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
Pancakes, Pancakes
The barnyard rooster crows and Jack wakes up - hungry of course! What does he want for breakfast? A big pancake! But first, Jack's mother needs flour from the mill, an egg from the black hen, milk from the spotted cow, butter churned from fresh cream, and firewood for the stove. Will Jack ever get his pancake? With his trademark vibrant collage illustrations and a lively text, Eric Carle has created a mouthwatering tale for young readers.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
A Place for Zero
Having nothing to bring to the game of Addemup, Zero cannot play with the rest of the players in Digitaria and so must come up with a clever plan that will let him play despite his numeric shortcomings. Simultaneous.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3
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
The Shape Family Babies
Mr. and Mrs. Shape are expecting a baby, but they are surprised when three arrive! The first is just like Mother Rhombus, the other just like Father Rectangle, the third baby is a different shape. What should her name be? Go on a geometry naming adventure as all the shape family relatives weigh in. Will Cousin Triangle, Aunt Hexagon or Grandma Rhombus have the right angle?
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
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
Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens
A clever introduction to place value. Sir Cumference and Lady Di planned a surprise birthday party for King Arthur, but they didn t expect so many guests to show up. How many lunches will they need? And with more guests arriving by the minute, what about dinner? Sir Cumference and Lady Di have to figure out a quick way to count the guests to bring order to the party. Sir Cumference and his friends have been entertaining young and old alike for years as they introduce important math concepts with clarity and humor.
Suitable for: Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7
Sophie's Prize
Sophie has just won $100 in an art competition. What will she do with the money? Will she spend it or save it? What would you do? Not only a picture book to be enjoyed in its own right, Sophie's Prize encourages mathematical thinking in a realistic situation to promote engagement, problem posing and solving, motivation and confidence in mathematics for your children. The book also includes ideas for mathematical activities associated with the book.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4
Uno's Garden
This playful counting book for the very young is a celebration of nature and imagination. Specially adapted by Graeme Base, the gorgeous illustrations guide children as they learn their numbers, discovering a whole menagerie of surprising and delightful creatures along the way.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
A Very Improbable Story
What are the odds? Ethan wakes up one morning to find a very strange cat stuck on his head. The cat, Odds, refuses to budge until Ethan wins a game of probability. Without looking, Ethan must pick out a dime from his coin collection or two matching socks from his dresser, or do something else improbable. If he doesn't, Odds is there to stay, and Ethan has a 100% chance of missing his big soccer game.
Suitable for: Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
What the Ladybird Heard
"Oink!" said the cats ...With all the MOOing and HISSing and BAAAing and CLUCKing, the farmyard is full of noise. But when Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len hatch a plot to steal the fine prize cow, it's the quietest animal of all who saves the day!Spot the glittery ladybird on every page of this wonderful rhyming tale from the creators of the bestselling THE PRINCESS AND THE WIZARD and SHARING A SHELL.
Suitable for: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
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.
