Ballerina Math

Miss Lina's Ballerinas by Grace Maccarone is about eight little girls who study dance with Miss Lina.  Christina, Edwina, Sabrina, Justina, Katrina, Bettina, Marina, and Nina dance around town in four rows of two.  When a new girl, Regina, joins the group, the original eight girls are a little unsure about how they will work together.  In the end, they realize that nine girls can dance in three groups of three.  This is a sweet book about teamwork, friendship, and ballet!

I decided to use the opportunity to introduce R to more number fun with grouping.  She has been counting by twos for a week or so now, and I thought she could have some fun putting ballerinas in groups.  First, I printed nine ballerinas for her to color.  I found the ballerina coloring page at the Sherri Allen website.  C helped her with some of the coloring.

I cut out all of the ballerinas and challenged R to put the first eight into equal groups.  She was a little silly at first, but eventually she put them in two rows of four and four rows of two.

When I added the ninth ballerina, she did not know what to do, but C reminded her that the ballerinas danced in three rows of three.

C was very helpful throughout all of this.  He loves to be the teacher.

When all was said and done, I taped popsicle sticks to the backs of the ballerinas and R took off to put on a ballet.

I am linking this to Math Links.  Click on the link for more fun math ideas.

What My Child is Reading - Ballet Books

 
Today is a special day for R - her very first dance recital!  We have been reading ballet books all week, and I thought I would highlight a few of her favorites today.

R loves both of the Ella Bella Ballerina books by James Mayhew.  Two weeks ago, I wrote about Ella Bella Ballerina and Cinderella.  That seems to be R's favorite of the two books.  Last week, we were lucky enough to see a local ballet company perform Cinderella and R enjoyed every minute of the ballet.  She loved seeing the fairies of the four seasons in the ballet after reading about them in the book.  This week, we read Ella Bella Ballerina and The Sleeping Beauty.  In this book, Ella is on stage after dance class when she is whisked off into the enchanted world of The Sleeping Beauty and tries to help save Princess Aurora.  Both of the books are fantastic and I definitely recommend them. At the end of both books, there is a page of  information about the ballets.  I found this very interesting and learned something new from each of the books.

We recently discovered the Katy Duck books by Alyssa Satin Capucilli.  We found Katy Duck Dance Star and Katy Duck Center Stage at the library this week.  They were perfect reads leading up to R's recital.

To find out what other children are reading, visit Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

The Nutcracker

C and R saw The Nutcracker for the first time this year.  Actually, it was my first time too and all three of us loved it.  We loved it so much that we are still reading the two books that we own about The Nutcracker.

I won The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, E.T.A. Hoffmann's Classic Tale Illustrated by Gail DeMarcken from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile.  C LOVES this book because the illustrations are amazing, especially the battle scenes.

The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers is a beautiful book with much less text.  This is the perfect version of the fairy tale for a young child.  Jeffers' version is based on the ballet which also makes it a great choice for a child who has seen or will see the ballet.

We are already looking forward to seeing The Nutcracker next year!