Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream

In another mood, or if I had a child struggling with multiplication, I might round this up to four stars. I like the playful illustrations, the 'diverse rep.' the three pages of notes at the end.* But really it's just another math book for educators... and it's an example of my pet peeve. Arithmetic is just a tiny bit of math, and a bean counter or even a Rainman savant is not a mathematician. Math is logic, probability, geometry, statistics, topology, deduction, etc. etc. and from this book I have no idea if Amanda will be interested in anything other than quick counting.

That being said, arithmetic is important. *And one of the activities at the end, "Which Has More," gives a clue. "Which has more wheels--5 tricycles or 7 bicycles?" show more Being familiar with the times table will help a grocery shopper quickly estimate whether 15 oz for $1.70 is a better deal than 22 oz for $2.50 or not, and a person can save hundreds of dollars shopping with that strategy of care.

I will look for more arithmetic and math books by the authors. show less

I liked this book for two reasons. First, I really liked the character of Amanda Bean. She was so enthusiastic about counting and I could easily imagine a young child with that kind of enthusiasm about learning and has a “specialty” such as counting. The kids at her school called her Bean Counter. She also frequently says, “I am Amanda Bean and I count anything and everything.” Second, the illustrations supported the text very well. Each page had a set of things that Amanda wanted to count, such as counter top tiles or books on a shelf, and the illustrations showed exactly how many tiles and books. The big idea of this story is getting kids to understand the importance of multiplication. In Amanda's dream, she starts finding show more many many things she wants to count, but the numbers keep getting higher and higher and she doesn't have enough time to count them all, illustrating why knowing how to multiply would come in handy. This would be a great book to read to kids before starting a multiplication lesson to get them motivated and help them realize how multiplication can relate to their lives. show less

This is a wonderful mathematical story. The main message of the story is to teach children that through repeated addition you can multiply. It is a great book for the basis of multiplication. One reason why I liked this book is because of the plot. Amanda is having a silly dream where she has to count tons of sheep riding bikes, grandmas at a yarn party, and sheep juggling yarn. This took multiplication and made it engaging and enjoyable for the children. Children are more likely to read the story and understand multiplication while laughing. I also liked the story because of the concept. Many books are read to children only during Language Arts time but this story can be used during math and they children are still being read to. This show more could also help the students who are having a difficult time understanding multiplication.I also liked how the author included a chant for the students. At the end of each page the sheep chant, "multiply multiply multiply" This makes it fun and more engaging for the readers as they can participate in the chant. show less

Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream is a short fictional story about Amanda, a young girl whose friends call her "Bean counter," because she loves to count everything! Students will follow Amanda on her journey through a typical day of "counting" and hear her thought processes about being hesitant to learn multiplication because she can always just count or add everything. However, Amanda soon learns that multiplication is a much faster way to find the total amount of objects and in some cases it is especially beneficial!

I would recommend this book to students in second and third grade. Because Amanda Bean is around these students' ages I believe it would appeal to them moreso than it would to older children. I also liked her character because show more she seemed to share a lot of views about math that many students may also share - the uselessness of multiplication when you have addition. As Amanda discovers its' practicality readers can also do so and may discover a new way of thinking about the importance of multiplication in their own lives. This book includes visual representations - such as the tiles at the store and books at the library - so students can see both how she first uses addition and then why multiplying would be more practical and time saving. These locations - a store and library - are places in which students can encounter often in their lives and this book provides an authentic aspect for the use of multiplication. One interesting aspect of this book is that it is written in first person. Students understand Amanda's thoughts along every step of her journey and she even poses questions for the reader to help her answer - such as should I count them too? that they can answer before turning the page. These questions allow students to become more engaged in the book as if they were with Amanda inside the pages of the story. In the last three pages of the book Burns includes resources for parents, teachers and students to expand their knowledge of multiplication both within and outside of this book. I would suggest having students read this book towards the beginning of a multiplication unit to understand how multiplication is repeated subtraction and how it allows individuals to speed up their counting! show less

This is a fun story about a girl who loves to count. She learns how important multiplication is when she has a crazy dream about some silly sheep and knitting grandmas. This is great for introducing multiplication.

Illustrations- water color/colored pencils

This book is about a girl who loves to count. Amanda counts everything. In school they start learning how to multiply and she wants to continue counting. Throughout the book she realizes how much longer it can take to count stuff and ultimately decides that it would just be better for her learn to multiply and how much fun it can be.

This a book at uses its pictures to teach math. It uses patterns, rows, and columns to show the concepts of counting, adding, and multiplying. I think this would be a good book to tie in math with reading.

Amanda Beans Amazing Dream is a great book because one of the activities that a teacher could do with their students is have a bunch of balls of yarn and give each student five balls of yarn and ask them how many balls of yarn the entire class has. Instead of counting the balls of yarn, students could multiply five balls times the number of students in the class. Another activity would be to give each student the same number of blocks and have the students calculate how many total blocks were given out. I would definitely recommend this story to other teachers to read to their students because it teaches students about counting and how to multiply things in a fun and interesting way. I will definitely read this book to my students show more because I want to make learning math easier and much more fun. I think this is a great introduction into teaching children multiplication. show less