Jump, Kangaroo, Jump! (Mathstart: Level 3

MathStart: Level 3 #7

by Stuart J. Murphy, Kevin O'Malley

Kangaroo is back! In this story he and his friends at camp divide into halves, thirds, and fourths to form teams at field day. Readers will cheer on this rowdy crew of Australian animals as they swim, canoe, play tug-of-war, and have a good, goofy time.

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, 1st Grade, Division, Nonfiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

PICTURES & WORDS, STORIES & BOOKS
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com

I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.

I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.

I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.

MATHSTART

The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.

The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.

Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )

THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL

Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”

STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN

My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.

I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.

Each book is reviewed by a tea

Reviews

[Chloe Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jump, Kangaroo Jump! is a wonderful story for children in 2nd-4th grade who are learning about fractions. The story talks about Kangaroo and his friends are competing in Field Day activities and have to divide themselves into teams for each events. For example, when the friends competed in the tug-of-war, there were 12 of them therefore they have to divide themselves in half. A great activity for this would be for the children to demonstrate the activities themselves in the story by first dividing themselves like the characters had to in the story. Then they could even act out the events for fun.

[Jenny D]

This book is about forming different sized teams for different events. It helps students with fractions of a set. It is probably best for students in grades 3-5, but could be scaffolded down to 2nd grade. In the story, the 12 animals have to break into different numbers of groups. Have students use a white board or manipulatives, such as counting bears, to follow along with the story to figure out what 1/2 , 1/3, and 1/4 of 12 are.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is nice for second or third graders who are learning fractions, and the fractional concepts are presented clearly. It could also be used for division, as twelve animals are divided into several different groupings. The artwork was just ok; the pictures are cute, but could have been more colorful and attractive.

[Library Lady Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely need to work in more of these books into story time. Subtle introduction to math.

[Michael Vance · Rating 4 out of 5]

i actually liked this one, it shows a kangaroo doing extraordinary things and can lead a child to believe they can do great things.

[Chappyfamily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun way to teach how to divide numbers into multiple fractions but only shows you the number 12.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this is an adorable way to bring in fractions! This is a colorful and interactive learning experience. I think that reading this with the students and calling on them all to read back what they e learned would be fun!

[Hope L. Justice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Artless. Math is great and practical, but there are other ways to teach fractions that are appealing to children and fun to read.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entertaining story about a field day featuring several Australian critters. We had to laugh as we read this because our girls had their field day the next day in school and we didn't realize it when we picked this book out to read. I seem to have a lot of coincidences like this in my reading choices, some more dramatic than others.

The narrative is engaging and the illustrations are colorful, cartoonish and fun. The math concept illustrated is fairly straightforward and our girls understood immediately how the story would progress. Overall, we thought this was an interesting book to read aloud and we will be sure to look for more of the books in the MathStart series by Stuart J. Murphy at our local library (especially the Level 3 stories.)

[Jamie Bye · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book, Kangaroo is having fun doing all the field day activities at his summer camp! There are 12 campers that must be split into a different number of equal teams for each activity. The campers are split into 2 equal teams of 8 for tug of war, 3 equal teams of 4 for a swim relay, 4 equal teams of 3 for a canoeing race, and finally 12 equal teams of 1 for a long jump competition! This book is very cute and puts fractions into real life situations that children can relate to, however it does not help children develop a comprehensive understand of fraction sense. There's no self discovery involved in finding the fractions, they are just easily told to the readers. I do, however, appreciate that the book includes the single person teams at the end to show that the campers are all single parts of the whole group of campers. This book would be best for children who are either reviewing basic fractions or who have never learned fractions before.

[Trang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a kangaroo and his teams on Field Day. To compete in the events his class has to divide into equal teams to do certain things. Its a great book about fractions and really allows children to understand how fractions work. For my class, we read each scene or event and then reviewed the concept that Kangaroo and his team did. For example, to split the class in half, Kangaroo and his friends broke into TWO EQUAL parts. My class did great with the concept and they enjoyed the read aloud.

[Gaby Roman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. The illustrations were great for students to see the representations of the fractions. I would use this book to either introduce fractions or use the book in a lesson about fractions. I would have my students stand in the room as the teams that are in the story. Allowing them to play the part of the teams in the story can help them understand fractions. I would ask questions throughout the story about how many teams are needed? Also, when the group is split how many campers are needed on each team.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book not only to learn math but also to learn about how to be a graceful loser. It is the story of a kangaroo who goes to camp with lots of other Australian creatures. Each event requires the campers to divide into different pieces of 12. Kangaroo doesn't win anything for most of the day. The last event is the long jump, and he wins that AND sets a new camp record! He is very happy, and the best part is that he doesn't throw a huge fit about not winning before that. It would be a great story to read to children who are learning fractions.

[Lauren Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very fun fraction book that is about 12 animals enjoying relay races on Field Day. The fractions dealt with in this book are the following: halves, thirds, and fourths. For a fraction lesson, I made this book come to life with the students since it lends itself well into a fraction activity outdoors involving relay races or similar games.

[Takeisha Hannor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This math book is a good resource to use when learning about wholes, halves, and fourths in fractions. The pictures show vivid descriptions to help students learn about fractions. This book is suitable for 1st-3rd grades. This book can be used to split the children into equal parts in the classroom in order to help teach them the concept of fractions.

[Kasmarine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes learning faction fun. The animals are having a field day at the camp. While they are playing tug-of-war,swimming relay race, canoeing, and long jump, these campers also learn about faction - equal parts- equal teams. Besides, math, this text can be used to introduced good sportsmanship and teamwork.

[Katie Plumley · Rating 5 out of 5]

* 2nd - 4th

* Students can easily see fractions as division with set models. Kangaroo and his friends divide into teams to compete.

* Can divide the class different ways after reading this book! Practice dividing sets.

* Makes the leap from area model to fractions as division very visible for students.

[Stina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book #18 for 2014

Meh. Supposedly an educational picture book to teach division and fractions to youngsters. Maybe it works for some kids, but it seemed particularly artless and short on anything that would illustrate the concepts in a meaningful manner. I can't help but think there are better books out there for teaching this.

[Denesha Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book on teaching fractions. It covers using halves, thirds, and fourths. The students rae engaged in a way that demonstrates realistic everyday uses for fractions that young children can relate to. This book would be a good to use during a lesson on fractions.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked that it taught math concepts, fractions but the story was just okay.

[Thao · Rating 5 out of 5]

- Great book to have lesson on fractions (fractions of groups; fractions of wholes)
- Literacy integration (rhyming words)
- Grades 2-5

[Tracy Schillemore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book helps teach about fractions.

[Bethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fraction fun at field day - featuring real life examples young readers can easily understand.

[Wendy]

fractions

[Kitty Tomlinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute children's picture book about fractions.

[Rani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learning fractions when #Aussie animals meet for a picnic.

[Esther]

Fractions. Counting groups of animals into different team configurations.