Book Title: Bananas

Posted by: Karla Sacaza

Author:  Jaccqueline Farmer & Illustrator: Page Eastbun O’ Rourke

Image

Recommended Grade Level:  3 4 5 / Multiplication, Percents

CCSSM Standards:  CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NFA1 Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.0A.A.3 Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem

Summery: The book Bananas provides the reader with lots of factual information about the banana fruit.  The book discusses the origin of bananas, the many varieties of bananas that exist, the many uses and benefits people get from it, and it also provides the reader with delicious recipes that can be made with the banana fruit. The book also provides readers with jokes about bananas.  My favorite one was:

Q: Did you hear the joke about the banana peel?

A: Sorry, it must have slipped my mind.

This Book provides context that help student build meaning for concept.  The students’ familiarity with bananas facilitates understanding of mathematics, as they are able to organize their thoughts around ideas that they are familiar with.  The book compares the shape of bananas to fingers.  It states that each group of ten to twenty bananas is called a hand.  This provides students the idea to engage with the problem.  The recipes in the book involve measuring concepts that can be used t o teach fractions, multiplication, and percent by providing the student with real world experience.   Students will enjoy learning math while making a delicious banana split. 

Rating:  The rating of this book is 4 to five star

Classroom Ideas:

**Make Chocolate-dipped Bananas with the recipe provided in the book. The recipe involves fractions such as ½ and ¼ .  The ingredients should be recorded in a chart that children can see while making he recipe.  Pictures of the measuring cup with the actual measuring being used should be included in the chart. 

This allows children to visualize the numbers and the amount measured while learning fraction vocabulary.  Students will develop a concept of what fraction is while having fun.

**You can have the children draw their hands on a piece of construction yellow paper.  You can then have them represent both of their hands as one banana hand.  Remind the students that as told in the book “bananas look like fingers and each group is called hand and each banana hand has ten fingers.  You can have groups of three to four students come up with the answer to a word problem provided to them using their finger pictures. 

A word problem can be the following.

How many bananas are in 3 hands of bananas if there are 10 bananas on each hand?

The children will used this opportunity to engage in multiplication concepts.  The teacher can provide students with suggestions on how to solve the problem.