Blog Post 3: Shaping Our World

I chose the children's book, Shaping Our Word by Julia Wall to write about. It discusses and analyzes many basic mathematical concepts through the use of aesthetically appealing pictures that children know well and probably see often. Ultimately, the book recognizes the different shapes that each real-life object represents. For this blog post I chose symmetry as my topic because there are many pictures within the book that show symmetry on a more simple scale. The cover of the book alone, a rainbow kite, shows reflection or, vertical symmetry.

The section of the book about symmetry uses everyday objects such as clocks, balls, a lunch sandwich, and more, to illustrate the presence of symmetry in our everyday lives. It shows where the line of symmetry would be for an object of the same shape and relates the sandwich to a square and tells that it has multiple types of symmetry; horizontal and vertical. Likewise, a clock represents a circle and has the same symmetry as a square. The idea of symmetry seems very clear to me now, but I think if I were to have read this book at a young age it would have been a great way to introduce simple mathematical concepts to me.

Literature is an effective way to teach and learn mathematical concepts because it makes young kids excited to learn. Teaching math through literature is a great idea because it allows all children, not just the ones with an aptitude for math, to be excited about math and learn in an easy and fun way. Overall, literature has the ability to connect real world ideas and objects to math, a topic that may not have appeared accessible to children.