Hands Down: Counting By Fives

by Michael Dahl, Todd Ouren (Illustrator)

Introduces counting by fives by counting fingers from hand art designs. Readers are invited to find hidden numbers on an illustrated activity page.

Genres: Childrens, Spanish Literature, Picture Books, Counting, Number

24 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Michael Dahl is the author of over 200 books for children and young adults, including the acclaimed Finnegan Zwake mystery series and The Library of Doom. His works have earned Edgar and Anthony Award nominations and national design honors. As Editorial Director at Stone Arch Books, he champions engaging, award-winning stories that inspire young readers everywhere.

He also writes under aliases Chris Carey, Rick Thomas, and Mark Ziegler.

Reviews

[Hannah]

Title: Hands Down: Counting by Fives
Author: Michael Dahl
Illustrator: Todd Ouren
Genre: Concept book
Theme(s): Counting, counting by fives, multiplication
Opening line/sentence:
"Time for art class! Today we will be using our hands."
Brief Book Summary:
In 24 pages, Michael Dahl explores concepts of counting using the five-finger hand set to illustrate multiplication. Transpired through art class crafts, readers will notice how the different fingers of a hand represented each counting number in sets of five.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Debra Briatico -- Children's Literature
Young readers will enjoy learning how to count by fives with this fun picture book, which uses children s hands in unique pieces of artwork to represent various multiples of five--from five to fifty. Each double-page spread features a fun art project containing one or more handprints. For example, the number twenty-five is represented by five purple handprints, which have been made into five silly squids with five tentacles each. Some of the other clever projects include using handprints to create a crab, oak leaves, butterflies, turkeys, ghosts, reindeer, and flowers. In addition to counting the fingers on each page, children can also count corresponding sets of dots (in groups of five) and numerals, which are found inside purple boxes located in the lower section of each left-hand page. As a surprise, each page contains a hidden numeral which matches with whatever multiple of five the page is focusing on. This wonderful counting book also includes a list of fun facts about nature, an internet resource, an answer key for the hidden numerals, and a list of other books in the Know Your Numbers series. Parents, teachers and librarians can use this engaging counting book as a resource for entertaining, easy-to-make art projects.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Mary Lou Damjanovich -- Teaching Children [Mathematics]
"Know Your Numbers" is a delightful series for young children that can be used to introduce kindergarten students to skip counting. The books can also be used in a shared reading or a read-aloud for first graders, or for independent reading or guided reading groups. The books can be used as independent readers at the beginning of second grade as well. I used these books with kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders, and all the children enjoyed them. This series lends itself nicely for integrating mathematics with reading. The text is large enough that each book can be used as if it were a big book. The books are great as a read-aloud to start a mathematics lesson. Teachers should allow time for the children to discuss the book, the children will be eager to share the connections that they have with the story and to relate the mathematics concepts that they see. The format for the series includes predictable text and a growing pattern. The amount on each page is shown in dots and numbers, and the number is hidden in the illustrations. When reading the books in a small-group setting, some children did have difficulty reading the number words in all capital letters. After the second reading, however, they better understood the pattern and could read the capitalized number words with ease. The illustrations are done in collage. They are bright and appealing, and they nicely support the text. The font appears to be handwriting; children will point this out. Children will want to read these books over and over again. They can make their own versions of the books to help them with skip counting by fives. At the end of each book are some fun facts, a Web site, an explanation of where to find the missing numbers hidden in the illustrations, and a list of other books in the series. I would recommend this series of books for any primary-grade teacher.
Response to Two Professional Reviews:
In agreement with the above reviews, the illustrations used to guide learning in this read are quite helpful not only in comprehension, but also with regard to instructional approach. With the examples used (in reference to number of hands/fingers), children have opportunity to connect to the text and practice the material on their own. Moreover, there are few words on each page, so children will have no trouble understanding and deciphering the text, as there is not an overt amount of information displayed.
Evaluation of Literary Elements:
Michael Dahl and Todd Ouren designed this book in an informative and easily-read fashion, as students can easily decode the bolded and clear text. Moreover, the illustrations displayed on each page are clear and detailed, yet are not chaotic enough to overwhelm readers. Moreover, because the entirety of the book uses art projects to forward instruction, the piece can be used as a reference for class learning, in addition to an individual read.
Consideration of Instructional Application:
Evidently, this book could be used to demonstrate learning for multiples of fives. As expressed in the piece, students could create different art projects using their hands -- turkeys, snowflakes, ghosts, jellyfish, etc. Following suit, they could them count or identify the number of fingers on each art piece, noting the quantity in groups of five to ensure comprehension.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great way to celebrate the 100th day of school! Is there anything better than counting by fives? That's right. There isn't. Just ask any first grader. Counting by fives is cool. They wanted to do this book again and again and again.

[Marlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

My five year old is learning to count by tens in school. This was a fun way to introduce counting five by five, which is a little bit harder since you have to recall more numbers in Spanish and English. Good practice for the kiddos!

[Kyle Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect use of pictures of kids hands to represent objects while teaching addition and multiplication. Ex. 1-hand(5 fingers) make a handprint, 2-hands(10 fingers) make a bright blue crab, 3-hands make leaves on an oak tree. This can be extended into a class activity where each week another hand is added to help class count by fives.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun, bright-colored picture book featuring ladybugs that helps children count by groups of five. I used the English version for a bilingual story time program about ladybugs, and I used the Spanish version for the equivalent Spanish story time program.