Picture Book Power: Connecting Children's Literature and Mathematics

     Interdisciplinary connections between literature and math can be made with picture books. Children's Literature becomes a vehicle for meaningful learning in mathematics, teaches children to value math and encourages them to use critical thinking skills to become problem solvers.  It explores a variety of mathmatical topics and makes math meaningful in a way in which children can relate. It also helps children to makes the text to self, text to text and text to world connections.
    One of my favorite books is Patricia Polacco's Thunder Cake. This story is based on Ms. Polacco's childhood fear of thunder and her real life experiences with her  Babushka (Russian for Grandmother).
It is the story of a young girl who hides under the bed when there are thunder storms. Babushka finally declares upon the first loud clap of thunder of a big thunderstorm that it is time to bake Thunder Cake.
    Babushka takes the child scurring around the farm to find the list of ingredients, all while the storm is  getting closer. She teaches the young girl to count the seconds between seeing the lightening and hearing the thunder to calculate the how many miles away the storm actually is from them. They must get the ingredients and get the cake in the oven before the storm arrives for it to be a real Thunder Cake. By occupying the young girl's mind in the quest to make Thunder Cake, she forgets about being afraid of the storm. When all the ingredients are gathered, they measure and bake the cake.While it bakes, they set the table and make tea. The cake is ready just in time.
     This can be used to introduce/teach elapsed time, distance and  temperature, but primarily for measurement. The students get to measure the ingredients and mix them together, bake the cake and eat the final product.
     This is an excellent book to read while studying weather, too.
     The recipe from the story is:

My Grandma's Thunder Cake

Cream together, one at a time                                                  1 cup cold water

1 cup shortening                                                                      1/3 cup pureed tomatoes

1 3/4 cups sugar                                                                   Sift together:

1 teaspoon vanilla                                                                    2 1/2 cups cake flour

3 eggs, separated                                                                    1/2 cup dry cocoa

   (Blend yolks in. Beat egg whites                                            1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

    until they are stiff, then fold in.)                                             1 teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients into creamy mixture.

Bake in two greased and floured 8 1/2 inch round pans at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

Frost with chocolate butter frosting. Top with fresh strawberries.