Measure (Action Math)

PreS-Gr 2--These two books will have trouble finding an audience. At first glance, they seem to be colorful, inviting titles with clear photography of life-size crafts to exemplify the topic. Measure puports to ``help you explore height, length, weight, area, and volume and use measures.'' This statement is folllowed by instructions for finger and felt puppets, masks, cookies and containers, mobiles, paper dolls, a sand timer, and tangrams. Patterns is supposed to ``help you sort things into groups, match similar things, and find out how things fit together''; it offers activities ranging from separating different colors of beads to paper cutouts requiring an exacto knife and more skill than most 12 year olds have. In both cases, elaborate art projects are created to demonstrate a simple math concept that could easily be shown with far less preparation, thus making it easier to incorporate into a lesson. A small box contains the objectives, but they are merely listed and not expanded upon. The concepts are aimed at preschoolers, but the skills needed for most of the crafts are well beyond that group's capabilities. These same concepts could be put in two pages of text in a teacher's handbook on math for preschoolers.

Nancy A. Gifford, Schenectady County Public Library, NY

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