Pigs On The Ball: Fun With Math and Sports

by Amy Axelrod, Sharon McGinley-Nally (Illustrator)

The Pig family visits a miniature golf course to celebrate Mr. Pig's birthday and everyone learns about shapes, angles, and geometry in the fifth book featuring the math savvy Pig family.

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Childrens, Sports

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Amy Axelrod is the author of many picture books, including The Pigs Will Be Pigs Math Series (Simon & Schuster).
Her debut novel, Your Friend in Fashion, Abby Shapiro (Holiday House 2011) was based on her childhood growing up in the 60's.
"Funny, lively, sensitive- a real winner! (Kirkus)
Amy's latest novel was co-authored with her son, David, who works in publishing.
The Bullet Catch:Murder by Misadventure (Holiday House 2015) is a Junior Library Guild selection.
Amy lives with her husband in New York's Hudson Valley in a house built in 1729. When she isn't writing, she's reading, baking, biking, bird-watching, or dreaming about all the places on her bucket list.

Reviews

[Randi Erickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book will be really good for an introduction to shapes, angles, right angles, parallel lines, and straight lines.

[Set · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel that my dad would have liked this book as a little boy. He love mini-golf and spending time with his family. It's cute and has some introductory elements of math like shapes and angles. Golf is definately a game of trigonometry. In golf, you have to look at the slope, wind, angle, hole height, distance, ball spin, club type, etc.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pig family celebrates Mr. Pig's birthday at the miniature golf course. Lots of angles, shapes, and counting add to the fun as the family attempts to score seven holes in one to win all you can eat pizza.

[Angieleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this with my nephew, who liked following along with the pig family's day of mini-golfing to celebrate papa pig's surprise birthday party as that's his favorite sport. He loved keeping score and learning about the different shapes and how to add/subtract depending on how many times they had to swing.

What we didn't exactly like was how the book ended abruptly; if you weren't paying attention to the pictures, you wouldn't understand how the story ended, which was frustrating for my nephew.

I thought that there was an hint that Papa Pig would have played better if he had his "lucky shirt" instead of the new clothes that the family bought him for his birthday. But that's just my opinion.

Overall, this is a great way to introduce more complicated math to young readers, as well as teach them the importance of good sportsmanship.

In my opinion this book is suitable for ages 9+.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the start, the author has included why she has written this book, which many students will understand. She wrote it because she realized that geometry wasn't only in math but around the world. She decided to write a book to showcase the different shapes we know within our lives that coexist with geometry.

The story begins with a family of pigs who go to play golf because it is the father's favorite thing to do. The cover covers the rules of golf with a layout of the course and the rules written out. The father is the pro within the family and he seems to be off track a bit. The mother continues to get the holes in one. If all holes are completed with a hole in one, they win a pizza party. This is a very cute book about persistence intertwined with math concepts.

Students will make connections with shapes around their lives.

[Inna Nako · Rating 5 out of 5]

-colorful book that teaches geometery in a fun way
-family goes out miniature golfing for Mr. Pig's birthday, but Mr. Pig can's seem to be his best (he usually is the best), but Mrs. Pig makes all the holes in one try since she looks at the geometry of the fields
-lot of vocabulary words such as straight line, edge, angle, equal sides, parallel.. etc.
-i like how there are questions at the end of the story for students to answer to check their understanding of the geometry concepts

[Samantha Hagler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book discusses young pigs that take their Dad out to play Putt-Putt for his birthday. This book would be appropriate for 4th and 5th grade and can be used with a geometry lesson. The book shows right angles, curves, and parallel lines during the different course of the Putt-Putt game. The students can see how math can be found in the real world and seen all around them. At the end of the book it would be fun to have the students add up each person's points to see who won the game.

[Joyce Munzwandi]

This wis a good book to teach geometry instruction and to make students aware of the many ways in which shapes are represented in their surroundings. Students can make real life connections with geometric shapes and fun activities. Students can also make or create their own art using various shapes, they can also list properties of different shapes.

[Rebecca Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute book. I would have the students use tally marks to record the pig's scores. At the end of the book they could calculate their tallies and find out who won the game. I would remind them that the lowest score wins in golf. I would also have them think of everyday objects that have the same geometric shapes as the golf greens in the story.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Pigs on the Ball" is a great book to use for teaching geometric concepts like lines, shapes, and even angles. The story is about a family of pigs that go on a golfing adventure for dad's birthday. They get to have fun outdoors all while using real mathematical concepts! I think this book would be great for upper elementary students, especially since it applies math to a relatable example.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be great to use with K-5th graders when introducing or teaching basic facts about geometric shapes. You can also incorporate counting by adding up and counting the different holes on the green the pigs putted the ball into!

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book for children learning their shapes. There was also a good underlying message about sportsmanship. The illustrations were a little too busy and cartoon like for me, but otherwise it was an entertaining read.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be a cool compliment to geometry instruction. I recommend this for 1st-4th grades. The book creates real life connections with geometric shapes and fun activities.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this book was okay. It is good for introducing vocabulary related to the topic. Also, it addresses different math concepts.

[Amanda Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for teaching shapes around k-2. For science you could use it to teach about momentum and slopes

[Timothy Cockburn · Rating 3 out of 5]

gemoetry lesson can be taught with this book.

[Attwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book could be helpful in mathematics to help students visualize different geometric shapes in real life settings. I'd recommend this reading for preK-3rd grades.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shapes.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pigs celebrate Mr. Pigs birthday playing putt-putt golf. The story teaches geometry with different shapes of the greens, and foods at the snack bar

[Rebecca Jones]

This is a good mentor text when talking about geometry and the different aspects of it. (i.e. angles, and shapes)