A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams

A Chair for My Mother

POSTED BY ELIZABETH BURGOS

Title: A Chair for My Mother

Author and Illustrator: Vera B. Williams

Recommended Grade Level: Pre-K – 2

Common Core Standards Addressed:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.A.3

Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.4

Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.4.B

Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.5

Count to answer "how many?" questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration; given a number from 1-20, count out that many objects.

Summary: This book is about a young girl that learns the principle of saving money! She receives money from her mother’s boss at the dinner and her household puts money in a jar to save up for a chair for her mother to rest on. The little girls community experiences a huge fire leaving them with nothing, but she remembers her savings and eventually gets her hard working mother the chair of their dreams.

Rating: ***** This book is my childhood favorite! The story teaches children the meaning of having compassion for someone else and how to be selfless as a child. Out of all the things a little girl could want, she wanted to buy her mother a chair with her earnings. This book introduces addition, prediction, and counting. Which would be awesome for any child learning how to save!

Classroom Ideas: The mathematical principles this book could teach would be addition, prediction, and counting. On page 17, there is a huge glass jar filled with all their earnings. I could use this depiction to ask the children to predict how much the little girl saved to buy her mother a new chair. Also, I could ask what coins did she put in the jar. Moving on to an activity, I could ask the children to think of something nice they would like to buy their mother and make prices for each item. Then we could use fake money to count together to purchase that item. This would teach the students how to add money, how to recognize the coins and their values, and predict how much the little girl spent on her mother’s couch