Zero, Zilch, Nada Counting To None

Title: Zero, Zilch, Nada Counting to none

Posted by: Lisandra German

Author: Wendy Ulmer

Illustrator: Laura Knorr

Recommended Grade Level: 2^nd Grade

Common Core Standards Addressed:

2.OA.C.3 Determine whether a group of objects (up to 20) has an odd or even number of members; e.g. by pairing objects or counting them by 2s; write an equation to express an even number as a sum of two equal addends.

2.NBT.A.1 Understand that the three digits of a three- digit number represents amounts of hundreds, tens and ones; eg., 706 equals 7 hundreds, 0 tens and 6 ones. Understand the following as special cases:

a. 100 can be thought of as a bundle of ten tens- called a “hundred”.

2.NBT.A.2 Count within 1,000; skip count by 5s, 10s and 100s.

Summary: This book is about a Rabbit named Harry, who on the first day of his new job at the four color balloon factory. His boss Mr. Huffy tells Harry that he must blow 100 balloons for Mrs. Doopido’s birthday party. After, Harry blew the balloons he wanted to make sure he blew 100 balloons. In this story Harry has to problem solve to figure out how to count all of the balloons he blew.

Rating:  

Absolutely loved this book! Not only does it align with common core standards, the illustration is vivid and colorful and it’s entertaining for students because the main character forgets how much he counted and pops balloons to make sure he counted correctly, not realizing the number of balloons is decreasing.  I honestly think this story is hilarious.

Classroom Ideas:This book can be used when teaching place value, number system bases, numbers and skip counting.

Math:

·       You can use this book to review the concept of skip counting. After reading the book, you can go over what the rabbit did in the book whenever he was popping the balloons, which was identifying the bases of number systems and then, skip counting to see how many balloons he had. Each students can be give a 1 to 100 number chart and with their group they could be given 100 balloons and matching colored crayons. The students can dived the colors of their balloons into groups of tens and then from their into groups of 5s or 2s like the rabbit did whenever he had to skip count by the balloon colors’ base number system. The student can color their number chard according to the number of balloons of each color they had and in their groups of tens, fives, and twos. The group will count how many balloons they have all together and then of each color then each group will share how many of each colored balloon they had and explain how they knew that.

Literacy:

·        Have students pretend that they are Mr. Huffy. What type of qualities would you want in an employee? Brainstorm qualities and record your ideas.

·       While reading the story Zero, Zilch, Nada students can look for the answer to the questions and record their answers. Students can receive a read along guide with questions about the story. (Reading Comprehension Questions)

1.       Harry works at the _____.

2.       What kind of animal is Harry?____.

3.       The song that Harry sings while working is “Puff, Puff, tie it in a knot_____, slip it in a slot.

4.       How many balloons was Harry told to blow up?

5.       What might Harry have picked up off the floor to pop the balloons?