In The Great Graph Contest, best
friends Gonk
the Toad and Beezy the Lizard
compete to
see who can make the best graph and in the process, they explore (1)
data
collection methods like surveys and tallies, as well as (2)
graphing
methods like line graphs, bar graphs, and more.
This book is an AAAS
Science Books & Films Honor Book!
Leedy's trademark illustrations definitely keep kids' attention and are full of clearly presented graphs. Unlike most Leedy books which are too packed for read alouds, this title would work well as a read aloud or independent reading. Overall, very well done!
In a starred review, School Library Journal said, "designed to inform and entertain... An exciting and energetic math resource." And Booklist said "natural for curriculum use, this is an entertaining, easy-to-follow introduction..."
Reading Levels
Interest Level:
Grade 1-3 DRA Level: 28 Lexile:
AD310L
Grade Level Equiv: 1.6 Guided Reading: L
See Inside
Below are two sample spreads from inside The
Great Graph Contest. Readers
familiar with Loreen Leedy's titles will recognize the packed spreads (although this title has decidedly less busy spreads
than her usual.)
To learn more about this book, click the link below. Please note that if you purchase an item from Amazon, they give us a small referral fee. (This helps pay for site hosting costs, thus allowing us to keep everything free for site visitors!)
On
her website (here), author Loreen Leedy suggest
the following graphing activities to accompany her book:
Create
a Chart Museum
The
Utah Education Network website has the following lesson idea on their site:
"Read the book once through and then re-read it and after each kind of
chart in the book, have a discussion about how the characters made
their graphs and why they used that particular chart/ graph each time.
Have a discussion about the charts and have students write in their
math journals about the various graphs. Make a home assignment for
students to make a creative graph with something of their
choosing, then bring it to school and hold a Chart Museum
where students will walk around looking at the various charts. Students
could also write numerical facts about the graphs in their math
journals." Source:
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=28204
This is just one of a number of math books by Loreen Leedy.
They are quite helpful to use when teaching math (although all share
the 'problem' of being hard to use as a read aloud because of all the
small details on the page.) If you teach math, you may also want to
check out her other books by clicking on the link above or the sampling
of book covers below.