One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab: A Counting by Feet Book

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The humorous nature of the story is presented in multiple settings with crabs in a pyramid, crabs in a conga line, and crabs headed to the shore with their inner tubes. While they only have two small eyes and a simple mouth this provides ample expression as one crab is left behind with ten spiders, looking rather uncomfortable. Prior to reading, warm up with some number recognition and partitioning questions. “Play Guess my Number” with the hundreds board by choosing a “mystery number” in your mind and having students ask questions to narrow the search for the mystery number (Does it have a 2 in the ones column? etc.). Reverse the game and give clues that help them narrow the search for another number (for example: My number has an even number in the tens column, or My number is 4 more than tidy number, or My number is made up of a two digits that are the same, etc.) After reading the book explain to students that they (or their pair) will each get to pull a number from the bag and make that number in 2 ways using the counting feet from the story.

This task continues to use the book One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab. It introduces students to the patterns of our place-value system and the significance of 10. The key understanding of unitising is introduced by asking students to represent teen numbers using one crab, which is the same as using 1 ten. In doing so, students move from using 10 ones to 1 ten. I tend to agree more with Kristin Harris because I really felt that this book was creative and imaginative especially for a math book. I can remember reading very boring counting books, but this one would have actually kept my attention. I also agree that the illustrations are humorous and colorful. Throughout the book I would catch myself stopping and really taking the pictures in. I think that children would love this book. This task uses the book One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab to explore numbers up to 20. Students represent numbers using the number of legs on animals in the book and look at how one number can be represented in multiple ways. Students also explore the efficiency of different representations. Lesson 2: One Crab + Some More This ingenious counting book is all about feet. Not the kind with inches. The kind with toes, or paws, or claws. “1 is a snail. 2 is a person. 3 is a person and a snail.” The four-footed dog plus a snail equals five. The eight –footed spider plus a snail equals nine. Ten? Why, ten is a crab! And that means 20 is two crabs. Forty is four crabs, or ten dogs or…you get the picture. And so will kids. No doubt they’ll be eagerly creating their own pedimentary equations in no time.”The mathematical focus of the story and the use of everyday items that students recognize can be recreated in the classroom using a variety of tools. Any manipulative from food to marbles can be combined from smaller sets to larger sets, modeling the process within the book.

This book was clearly made to teach children to count or add. I thought that the way the authors and illustrator presented the material was very unique and fun. A perfect cross curricular book with strong links to numeracy. This story is all about counting with feet! "One is a snail, two is a person, three is a snail and a person, four is a dog, five is a dog and a snail!" By using pictures as an effective tool for counting in arrays, children can see the link to counting in multiples of 10 and can even use the pictures to help them come up with their own sums. I like the way the story builds up slowly with illustrations. This allows children, especially those who are mathematically weak, use visuals to count and make connections with number sums. Because this book is not littered with numbers and calculations it proves more engaging to children.

Brief Book Summary: This book is entirely about counting, and uses unique and creative ways of showing children how to do so. The book begins by showing the reader that a snail has one foot, so they begin there at one. Then it continues that two is a person because a person has two feet. Three is a person and a snail. Four is a dog because they have four legs. Five is a dog and a snail. Six is an insect. Seven is an insect and a snail. Eight is a spider. Nine is a spider and a snail. Ten is a crab. The book then continues to count by ten’s up to one hundred using various things to count with for instance, “twenty is two crabs”, and “thirty is three crabs or ten people and a crab.”