In Card Game Roundup, Singing Turtle Press rustles up a passel of fun card games that parents and their little cowboys and cowgirls can play together - all the while learning valuable and interesting math skills. The book is for parents with children in grades kindergarten through second grade, but it is also aimed at homeschoolers, tutors and teachers. The games, created by veteran teachers Trudy Bortz and Josh Rappaport (author of the Parents' Choice award-winning Algebra Survival Guide), are so much fun that kids won't even realize they're learning math as they play. In Quicksand, players must climb up a tree and grab a branch before they fall into the deadly sand pit below. This game teaches number line concepts, addition, subtraction, and even the notion of positive and negative numbers.In Galloping Guesses, players pretend they are gypsies using psychic powers to guess the suit of overturned cards. By keeping track of their guesses, children make discoveries about data and probability.And in the rodeo game Bucking Broncos, children learn about patterns and functions by trying to identify patterns uniting sets of cards. If they get the pattern right, they win rodeo points; get it wrong, and they're bucked off their bronco. The book is beautifully illustrated in soft Western tones by artist Sally Blakemore (winner of the 2002 Children's Literature Choice Award), and it aligns with the Standards 2000 of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Josh Rappaport runs the Now I Get It! Tutoring Service in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As a longtime tutor, Josh has heard just about every question about math ever uttered. To help children, Josh relates math's complexities to life situations through playful analogies. Josh put his ideas together in the Algebra Survival Guide, winner of a Parents Choice commendation. The Guide has been used by individuals, schools and school districts across the United States. Trudy Bortz has been working in elementary schools for 29 years, and she's still going strong! Named Teacher of the Year for Special Education, Trudy currently teaches in the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado. In addition to a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood/Elementary Education, Trudy holds master's degrees in Special Education and Education Administration.Josh Rappaport, winner of the Outstanding Young Educator award, is author of the best-selling Algebra Survival Guide, now going into its fourth printing. Josh taught middle school and high school, and for the last 12 years he has been president of the Now I Get It! Learning Center, where he both tutors and teaches children of all ages.
