Tiger Math: Learning to Graph
from a Baby Tiger
by Ann Whitehead Nagda
illustrated by Cindy Bickel
Tiger Math tells the story of T.J., a tiger born at the Denver Zoo who became an orphan as an baby. The zoo's veterinary staff takes over for his mother, feeding him by hand until he is able to eat on his own.
Tiger Math shares this compelling story of survival, and includes different types of graphs (picture, pie, line, bar) that chart his development in his early years.
This book has won a number of prestigious children's book awards, including:
* Outstanding Science Children's Book 2001 -- Nat'l Science Teachers Assoc
* Teacher's Choice Book -- International Reading Association
Reading Levels for Tiger Math
Interest
Level: Grade
2-5 DRA Level: 38 Lexile Level: 810L
Grade Level Equiv: 5.1 Guided Reading: P
See Inside Tiger Math
Below are sample spreads from inside Tiger Math. As there is quite a bit of text, this
isn't a simple picture book that you would read to lead into a lesson
on graphing. Instead, this is a book to build an entire lesson around!
Click image to see larger version
To learn more about this book, click the link below:
Lesson Ideas for this book
Do the Graphs Again lesson
idea
Read
the story through to your class--both the story of TJ the Baby Tiger --and-- the graphs
that go along with his growth & development. Then, pass out the graphs following graphs to each student and as a
class, go though the data to graph it again. You can either para-
phrase the story when you share each piece of data to graph, or simple
share the data. (All the data is in the book, of course).
For the main three graphs, click here. (We used the actual graphs in the book to make these graphs, just pasting a white grid over where the book's graphs showed data.)
Human vs. Tiger Development
lesson ideas
You
have the tiger's weight gain over the first months of his life, now
here is the average human baby's weight gain (according to the World
Health Organization). It would be fun to graph the two (sort
of like how the book compares T.J.'s weight gain and his father's on
page 20). You can use the "TJ and Matthew" chart.
To
make it more interesting, perhaps vary the amount that the baby gains
each week (within the correct averages listed above).
Baby's
Age
Average
Weight Gain
0
to 3 months -- 5.5
- 8.5 ounces per week
3 to
6 months -- 3.25
- 4.5 ounces per week
This exercise will give students additional practice graphing and will also show the tremendous difference in how rapidly tigers develop verses human babies. A nice cross-curricular activity. :)
This is a great book, but if it's not exactly the book you are looking for, check out:
