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Animal Math
Panda Math: Learning About Subtraction from Hua Mei and Mei Sheng
Learn about subtraction with the San Diego Zoo’s famous baby pandas
Hua Mei was the first giant panda cub born in the United States that survived more than a few days. She was born at the San Diego Zoo, and four years later her mother had another baby, Mei Sheng. Hua Mei and her brother, Mei Sheng, spend their days climbing on logs, lounging in trees, and eating bamboo.
A lot of things the pandas do can be thought of in terms of subtraction. Young readers follow the famous cubs as they grow from tiny infants to big, bouncing pandas and learn about subtraction along the way.
Hua Mei was the first giant panda cub born in the United States that survived more than a few days. She was born at the San Diego Zoo, and four years later her mother had another baby, Mei Sheng. Hua Mei and her brother, Mei Sheng, spend their days climbing on logs, lounging in trees, and eating bamboo.
A lot of things the pandas do can be thought of in terms of subtraction. Young readers follow the famous cubs as they grow from tiny infants to big, bouncing pandas and learn about subtraction along the way.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2005
1 person is currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 22, 2013
There are books about animals and books about math. This book tries to do both, and I think it is moderately successful. I would recommend to parents reading this book with younger children that they skip the math pages as the author suggests in the beginning of the book. Otherwise they will likely lose interest quickly.
We recently read Cheetah Math: Learning About Division from Baby Cheetahs and our youngest complained a lot about the alternating pages of math lessons. I think she was just grumpy that night. Tonight, she was far more enthusiastic about the different word problems. I think it helped that she was familiar with the format and was comfortable with the flow of the story.
The layout of the book offers one page of math lesson followed by one page of story repeated throughout the book. I usually prefer books that incorporate math lessons seamlessly into the story, but this is a good way to relate everyday math lessons and make the concept of division more understandable. I will often quiz our girls with similar problems when we are reading a tale, attempting to test their comprehension and help them see how math is used in everyday life.
Overall, I thought this was a well thought-out and produced book. I really liked that the book explains how problems can be solved using different methods and ways of thinking about the numbers. The narrative is fairly short and entertaining, the math problems are nicely presented, and the photographs are very adorable.
We really enjoyed reading this book together and I am looking forward to reading Tiger Math: Learning to Graph from a Baby Tiger and Chimp Math: Learning about Time from a Baby Chimpanzee too, since they are all available at our local library.
We recently read Cheetah Math: Learning About Division from Baby Cheetahs and our youngest complained a lot about the alternating pages of math lessons. I think she was just grumpy that night. Tonight, she was far more enthusiastic about the different word problems. I think it helped that she was familiar with the format and was comfortable with the flow of the story.
The layout of the book offers one page of math lesson followed by one page of story repeated throughout the book. I usually prefer books that incorporate math lessons seamlessly into the story, but this is a good way to relate everyday math lessons and make the concept of division more understandable. I will often quiz our girls with similar problems when we are reading a tale, attempting to test their comprehension and help them see how math is used in everyday life.
Overall, I thought this was a well thought-out and produced book. I really liked that the book explains how problems can be solved using different methods and ways of thinking about the numbers. The narrative is fairly short and entertaining, the math problems are nicely presented, and the photographs are very adorable.
We really enjoyed reading this book together and I am looking forward to reading Tiger Math: Learning to Graph from a Baby Tiger and Chimp Math: Learning about Time from a Baby Chimpanzee too, since they are all available at our local library.
April 20, 2012
Author: Ann Whitehead Nagda
Grade Level: 3-4
Content: Math, San Diego Zoo's own Panda, informational
This is an amazing book that incorporates both factual information on pandas at the San Diego Zoo as well as subtraction concepts. If you only would like to read the story of the pandas, then you only read the right side of the book. If you would like to incorporate the math portion then you would read the left sides of the book. It explains the concept of subtraction as finding the difference between tow numbers. It talks about the change in weight from a panda at birth to a panda at 2 weeks old. They measure this using ounces, so the measurement aspect could also be incorporated. On another page it talks about the total number of bamboo species at the zoo minus the amount of bamboo species eaten by the pandas. To show this illustration rods and individual unifix cubes are used to help the reader understand how many species of bamboo are not eaten by pandas.
The illustrations in this book are real pictures taken when Mei Sheng (the baby panda) was born at the San Diego zoo. It provides the reader with a sequence of events in a panda cycle from birth to adult.
This would be an ideal book for 3rd - 4th grade due to the wordy sections on the right side where it talks about the actual story of the panda at the San Diego Zoo. This book could be incorporated to speak about the life cycles of pandas and also could be used to explain what they do at the zoo and how they take care of the animals.
Grade Level: 3-4
Content: Math, San Diego Zoo's own Panda, informational
This is an amazing book that incorporates both factual information on pandas at the San Diego Zoo as well as subtraction concepts. If you only would like to read the story of the pandas, then you only read the right side of the book. If you would like to incorporate the math portion then you would read the left sides of the book. It explains the concept of subtraction as finding the difference between tow numbers. It talks about the change in weight from a panda at birth to a panda at 2 weeks old. They measure this using ounces, so the measurement aspect could also be incorporated. On another page it talks about the total number of bamboo species at the zoo minus the amount of bamboo species eaten by the pandas. To show this illustration rods and individual unifix cubes are used to help the reader understand how many species of bamboo are not eaten by pandas.
The illustrations in this book are real pictures taken when Mei Sheng (the baby panda) was born at the San Diego zoo. It provides the reader with a sequence of events in a panda cycle from birth to adult.
This would be an ideal book for 3rd - 4th grade due to the wordy sections on the right side where it talks about the actual story of the panda at the San Diego Zoo. This book could be incorporated to speak about the life cycles of pandas and also could be used to explain what they do at the zoo and how they take care of the animals.
November 1, 2012
I would use this to show correlation to real life. Let students see how math is in everything we do. Cute pics of baby panda. Im from San Diego and have been to this zoo numerous of times, i could show my self to text correlation. It has arrays throughout the book and a rekenrek look a like model, plus a numberline.
November 14, 2013
This just makes me happy on so many levels. I like math. I like pandas. I like some of these explanations on how to do math, some I don't. I think that we look too hard sometimes for shortcuts. On the other hand, for kids that are very visually oriented, this might be just the thing.
April 22, 2011
Teaching subtraction by using information about two baby pandas. I will be getting other books in this series. A good living maths book.
March 30, 2016
Panda Math: Learning About Subtraction from Hua Mei and Mei Sheng
Nagda, Ann Whitehead
3.
math resource book about subtraction
Nagda, Ann Whitehead
3.
math resource book about subtraction
September 23, 2013
I have no idea why they bothered to include the subtraction nonsense. If a kid picks up a book about pandas, he's not thinking about subtraction!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews