Henry the Fourth: A Fun and Educational Picture Book About Learning Ordinals for Kids (Ages 4-8)

MathStart Level 1

by Stuart J. Murphy, Scott Nash (Illustrator)

“Kids, young and old, fall in love with math when they see how real-life and effortless it becomes thanks to these books.” —Kimberly D. Mueller, Ed.D., First Grade Teacher, Ashbrook School, Lumberton NJ Henry the Fourth is perfect for teaching ordinals to pre-K through kindergarteners. Welcome to the neighborhood dog show! First Maxie speaks. Second Baxter begs. Third Daisy rolls over, but will Henry the fourth steal the show? Learning ordinals with this pack of playful pooches will have readers sitting up and begging for more. Kids will love the story and the illustrations by Scott Nash. Parents and educators will love how the story and pictures make understanding the math concepts a breeze—as well as the concrete examples of how math works. The book contains activities for adults to do with kids to extend math into their own lives.  Math skills are life skills, and the MathStart series supports success! MathStart's unique combination of stories, illustrations, and visual models helps teachers and parents in the teaching of math and provides all children with the opportunity to succeed. The math concepts taught in MathStart books conform to state and national standards. Level 1 is Pre-K–Kindergarten; Level 2 is Grades 1–3; Level 3 is Grades 2–4. The series follows math topics across grades so there is a foundational path to learning that runs through the levels. Help kids with their math skills  plus  their reading skills with the engaging and fun MathStart series!

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Counting

40 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 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

[Isabel Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book because it explains ordinal numbers in an easy and creative way. My ESOL students have a really hard time with this concept, and i believe that it is more so on the language side than on the actual mathematical concept side. I can see how using this book in small groups can help the students that are struggling the most, specially after following it up with an ordinal number activity where they can organize themselves ordinally and represent it with a drawing.

[☼Bookish in Virginia☼ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time Machine
Henry the 4th is awesome, January 4, 2005

This book is great. It covers the ordinal numbers (first, second, third and fourth) and is a fun story that kids enjoy. My almost 3 y.o. son asks me to read it over and over and my 4.5 y.o. daughter got the concepts after the second reading.

If you are looking for a good edutainment book I suggest you can't go wrong with this one.

[Megan Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually used this book for one of my observed lessons last semester. In a small group, I used dog beanie babies to have the students practice sequencing and ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, etc), after reading this book. They loved the dogs! The book was an excellent way for the students to begin to understand sequencing and the importance of ordinal numbers in an interesting and creative way.

[CanadianReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, easy introduction to ordinal numbers. Jeremy is having a neighborhood dog show, complete with lawn chairs for the audience, a makeshift stage, and clothesline curtains. Four dogs of various breeds are competing to determine which one is the most talented. First is Maxie; second, Baxter; third, Daisy . . . and fourth . . . well, Henry, who doesn't want to cooperate. What Henry finally does, however, wins him the title "king of the show".

Stuart Murphy does a lot with very minimal text. He uses great vocabulary and some lively verbs, and even a little alliteration. Ordinals are printed in red ink. The book concludes with some great activities and games grown-ups can do with kids. A particularly useful activity (and one I know kids often need help with, believe it or not!) is asking the child to talk about the position of one dog in relation to the other dogs--i.e. How many dogs came before Baxter? etc. Adults can also ask questions about the illustrations using ordinal numbers. These are some things that parents might not think to do to provide their child with extra practice.

A final thing to recommend the book: a list of other picture books that focus on the concept of ordinal numbers.

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Fiction
Grade Level: Lower Elementary (K-1)

I let one of my students pick a book to read today and he picked this book. I had never read it before but it ended up being pretty good. My students predicted that it would be about a dog's fourth birthday, but it ended up being about the order of dogs in a show. Maxie speaks first, Baxter begs second, Daisy rolls over third, and Henry's surprise is fourth. I think this would be a great book to use to explain the ordinal numbers and will definitely be using this book to explain the concept next year. Overall, I would give this book 3 stars.

[Mari Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book is probably really interesting for kids, just not my taste. I like that it introduced counting and is easy to understand for beginning readers. Four dogs are in a contest and the first three are very good and do great, The fourth dog, Henry, does not obey, but he gets the prize anyway. The kids at the daycare loved it though, so maybe I'm just not "up with the times"

[Lu · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I guess this book does use ordinal numbers but the story is pretty bad and doesn’t seem to have a real ending. Why is he king of the show when he didn’t do anything? I don’t understand.

I picked this book up solely because of the cover as the illustrated dogs on the cover were really cute and the illustration style is simple and easy to copy if you like drawing.

[Private Account · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved this book, until the dog that won the dog show … was the bad dog, the one who didn’t do his trick and knocked a boy over instead. What is wrong with the modern world that they think prizes should go to losers?

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute way to practice ordinals.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The neighborhood kids are having a dog talent show. Who will win?

A quick and simple story about 4 dogs and their unique talents used to introduce kids to ordinal numbers.

[Brigette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Henry the Fourth strikes me as a “fake” book. It has a plot, but it is clearly a book whose purpose is to teach math, more than to entertain. The cover illustration shows four dogs all staring happily at the reader. The title has “Henry” in a bigger font and different color than the rest of the title. The title is obviously ironic in its allusion to Henry IV, but I saw no other references to British royalty in any form throughout the rest of the book. Before we even get to the title page, there is an illustration of three of the four dogs that were on the cover, all looking in the direction of a few clouds and lines that seem to indicate that the fourth dog just ran out of the page very quickly. Because they are all looking that way, it makes readers want to see what they’re looking at, which requires turning the page. The next opening, which includes the title page, does indeed show the fourth dog running away, dragging his owner along behind him. The colors in all the illustrations are very bright and cheery. The establishing shot, which is opposite the dedication, shows a small group of multi-cultural friends all gathering around a make-shift stage in someone’s backyard, awaiting a dog show. The entire story is dedicated to teaching numbers and their ordinals. “First, Maxie spoke loudly. Second, Baxter begged beautifully. Third, Daisy rolled over and over. But Henry the fourth is the king of the show!”

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short and silly book that teaches the beginning concepts of order and ordinal numbers. The pets are cartoonishly funny and the story is simple and straightforward. Our girls appreciated the word play with Henry the Fourth, as we've talked a little about the succession of monarchs, especially in England.

We enjoyed reading this book together, but I think I will try to focus on getting more of the higher level Mathstart books, since the books like this one in MathStart Level 1 seem to be almost too easy for our girls.

[Autumn Yoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry The Fourth is a very simple, easy-to-read book that takes place at a dog show.This book would be excellent for a math lesson because it introduces order, and ordinal number terms. The book uses great mathematical terms such as: first, second, third, fourth etc. If a teacher wanted to incorporate this into a lesson, he/she could have all the students line up in a row and have them say their ordinal number. Great book for K-2.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry the Fourth by Stuart J. Murphy is a cute book that teaches young learners about the concept of ordinal numbers. It uses cute little dogs to teach them who comes first, second, third, fourth and so on. It's a great book to teach students about sequencing. Students could use this book to do an activity where they line up themselves or other objects in order of first, second, third, forth, etc. I would use this book for students in grades K-2nd.

[Blakeley Norris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really cute book about dogs. This is also a good book to read during math to help students grasp the concept of order: first, second, third, etc... In class a group did an activity with this book. They made 10 dog puppets adn put symbols on the backs of them. Students had to figure out how many symbols they had and what order they would come in.

[Irina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very simple book that helps students understand the concept of ordinal numbers. It specifically works on first through fourth, so I would say that it's perfect as an introductory book. This book could be used to do a whole group activity by making the four dogs on sticks (or any other way) and having students reenact the story using ordinal vocabulary. (Meant for very early elementary)

[Kasmarine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeremy and the Dog Show. "Which dog will win? The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th."
Great for counting and ordinal. Reader will enjoy and learn about ordinal as Jeremy goes through the Dog Show.
The illustrations are beautiful and helpful to understand about ordinals. The plots and setting keep learning about
ordinal more engaging.

[Laree Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! I read this book to my Kindergarten classroom as part of a math lesson on ordinal numbers. I highly recommend this book and having the students do a ordinal number activity , immediately following the lesson.

[Lidra West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for introducing students to the concept of ordinal numbers. Students will be able to participate in the events of the story by teaching asking student to make prediction on what dog comes next and what place that particulcar puppy is in.

[Erica Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for teaching children about ordinal numbers. Make sure to explain the relationship between ordinal and cardinal numbers. Create concrete activities for the students to participate in.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ordinal numbers 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Books suggested in the end that I'd like to read are Pancakes for Breakfast by DePaola and First, Second by Daniil Kharms.

[Bailey]

This is a great book to use when you are teaching your student about ordinal numbers. This book also has some activities you can do with your students at the end of the book.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very cute book! I would use this book to introduce ordinal numbers. A cute lesson would be to create your own dog show with your class.

[Megan Breslow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for teaching ordinal numbers. Students can make predictions and help order the dogs in the story. Can have the students create own order stories.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does not have a lot of words on each page so it is a good book to use with younger children. This is also a good book to use in math because students can make predictions.

[Christine Levinge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book to use for younger children (Kindergarten) to enforce counting skills. This would serve as a great read aloud book for students to learn about ordinal and cardinal numbers.

[Ashley Levan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to teach children about ordinal numbers.

[Takeisha Hannor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great for kindergarteners to help them count and learn sequence. It helps children to understand what comes next. This book would be good for math as well as reading.

[Esther]

Ordinal numbers -- written under dogs in the dog show as they are lined up on successive pages. Also written into dialogue.

[Debby Baumgartner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Henry the dog is a part of the dog show. Who will win? The book teaches the meaning of first, second, third and fourth.