Panda Math: Learning About Subtraction from Hua Mei and Mei Sheng - Hardcover

Ann Whitehead Nagda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805076441 ISBN 13: 9780805076448

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 2005

Synopsis

Learn about subtraction with the San Diego Zoo’s famous baby pandas

Hua Mei was the first giant panda cub born in the United States that survived more than a few days. She was born at the San Diego Zoo, and four years later her mother had another baby, Mei Sheng. Hua Mei and her brother, Mei Sheng, spend their days climbing on logs, lounging in trees, and eating bamboo.

A lot of things the pandas do can be thought of in terms of subtraction. Young readers follow the famous cubs as they grow from tiny infants to big, bouncing pandas and learn about subtraction along the way.

About this title

About the Author

Ann Whitehead Nagda is the author of several books about wildlife and math. She lives with her family in Boulder, Colorado.

The San Diego Zoo is recognized as one of the world’s premier animal parks. The zoo’s efforts help protect the survival of animals in captivity and those in the wild through research and education.

Reviews

Grade 2-4–This wonderful title featuring panda cubs born in the San Diego Zoo does double duty as a math book. The right side of each spread offers a captioned color photograph and text describing the growth and development of Hua Mei and Mei Sheng. The green left-hand pages provide additional details about pandas in general and these two specifically: their eating and sleeping habits, weight, and life expectancy and incorporates this information into a subtraction word problem. Written and visual answers using different methods (base 10 system, regrouping, adding up) are provided. Photos of these endearing creatures are also found on the endpapers. A terrific cross-curricular book.–Christine E. Carr, Lester C. Noecker Elementary School, Roseland, NJ
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Gr. 3-5. Although teaching subtraction with real panda bears may seem to be the kind of thing PETA would discourage, no animals are harmed in the arithmetic operations illustrated here. Readers familiar with Nagda's Chimp Math (2002), about telling time, and Polar Bear Math (2004), about fractions, will recognize this volume's distinctive structure, with math exercises set apart from a more traditional narrative on the featured panda family's life at the San Diego Zoo. Topics such as bamboo consumption, life span, and sleep habits drive the demonstrations of several clearly explained subtraction techniques, which always include a graphic aid for visual learners. Some will look in vain for a strong connection between the subtraction problem and the topics in the accompanying story, but most young readers will simply revel in the entertaining photographs and leave it to teachers to implement the book's cross-curricular purpose. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805076441
• ISBN 13: 9780805076448
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32