Children's books and activities
Math and Measuring
Do you know any kids who are fascinated by numbers and love to count, puzzle out fractions, and measure stuff? We've gathered up a great collection of books, activities, apps, and websites for learning all about math and measuring.
Try pairing fiction with nonfiction books and exploring different genres (like poetry and biographies) and formats (like graphic novels and audio books). You'll be creating your own "text sets" — collections of texts focused on a specific topic, such as math and measuring. Reading widely in this way helps children build background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.
Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Print List
Absolutely One Thing: Featuring Charlie and Lola
By: Lauren Child
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Sometimes, as a treat, Mom takes Charlie and Lola to the store and says they may choose one...
Bedtime Math
By: Laura Overdeck
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Cook-A-Doodle-Do!
By: Janet Stevens
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Counting on Community
By: Innosanto Nagara
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Concept Book
Counting up from one stuffed piñata to ten hefty hens — and always counting on each other —...
How Big Were the Dinosaurs?
By: Bernard Most
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Dinosaurs are endlessly fascinating. Perhaps because it is hard to imagine giant lizards roaming...
Inch by Inch
By: Leo Lionni
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Josefina
By: Jeanette Winter
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Concept Book
Count along in English and Spanish with a Mexican folk artist as she sculpts her world from clay...
Millions, Billions and Trillions: Understanding Big Numbers
By: David Adler
Age Level: 3-6 years old
A billion is a big number, bigger than a million. "It's written like this: 1,000,000,000 — one...
Musk Ox Counts
By: Erin Cabatingan
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Concept Book
One Fox: A Counting Book Thriller
By: Kate Read
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Concept Book
One hungry fox with two sly eyes is on the prowl…three plump hens had better watch out! Rich and...
One Gorilla: A Counting Book
By: Anthony Browne
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Perimeter, Area and Volume: A Monster Book of Dimensions
By: David Adler
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Sheep Won't Sleep: Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s
By: Judy Cox
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Clarissa is flabbergasted. Ten of the sheep she was counting while trying to doze off have...
Teddy Bear Patterns
By: Barbara McGrath
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Print List
7 Ate 9
By: Tara Lazar
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Private I tries to assuage 6 who just knows that 7 is coming to get him! Why? Because 7 8 9, of...
7 X 9 = Trouble
By: Claudia Mills
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The times tables causes third grader, Wilson, great anxiety as he struggles to learn them all...
A Computer Called Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Helped Put America on the Moon
By: Suzanne Slade
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The inspiring true story of mathematician Katherine Johnson--made famous by the award-winning...
A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars
By: Seth Fishman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Earth is surrounded by stars of which the sun is only one. Earth is blue “because it is covered...
Actual Size
By: Steve Jenkins
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The real and truly amazing size of animals from the sea and land are shown in a way that...
Animals by the Numbers: A Book of Infographics
By: Steve Jenkins
Age Level: 6-9 years old
How many species are there across the globe? How much do all of the insects in the world...
Ants Rule: The Long and Short of It
By: Bob Barner
Age Level: 6-9 years old
This is a colorful and fun-filled introduction to nonstandard measurement, comparison, and...
Bedtime Math 2: This Time It’s Personal
By: Laura Overdeck
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Playful situations from familiar situations and activities make math come alive. Questions for...
Betcha! Estimating
By: Stuart Murphy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci
By: Joseph D'Agnese
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
As a young boy in medieval Italy, Leonardo Fibonacci thought about numbers day and night. He was...
Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13
By: Halaine Becker
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
You've likely heard of the historic Apollo 13 moon landing. But do you know about the...
Dinosaurs: By the Numbers
By: Steve Jenkins
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Through infographics, illustrations, facts, and figures, readers will learn about the giants...
Eating Fractions
By: Bruce MacMillan
Age Level: 6-9 years old
How do two children share one banana? Cut it in half, of course! Healthy foods are shared by...
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race
By: Margot Lee Shetterly, Winifred Conklin
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The true story of four African American women whose talent and tenacity led to careers at NASA...
How Big Is a Foot?
By: Rolf Myller
Age Level: 6-9 years old
How Much Is a Million?
By: David Schwartz
Age Level: 6-9 years old
There are millions of people living in the United States, but the numbers are much too large to...
How Tall, How Short, How Far Away?
By: David Adler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Just a Second
By: Steve Jenkins
Age Level: 6-9 years old
In just a second, a bat can make 200 calls, a black mamba snake can slither 24 feet, four babies...
Lemonade for Sale
By: Stuart Murphy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Maryam’s Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani
By: Megan Reid
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
As a little girl growing up in Tehran, Maryam Mirzakhani was spellbound by stories but she did...
Math Curse
By: Jon Sciezka
Age Level: 6-9 years old
When the narrator begins to see math everywhere, she knows she’s suffering from a math curse!...
Mathemagic! Number Tricks
By: Lynda Cogan
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Magic tricks and math come together, sure to engage sophisticated children. Clear explanations...
Me and the Measure of Things
By: Joan Sweeney
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Measuring Penny
By: Loreen Leedy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Concept Book
Millions to Measure
By: David M. Schwartz
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Mind-Boggling Numbers
By: Michael J. Rosen
Age Level: 6-9 years old
If you could hike to the moon, how long would it take? Just how many glasses of lemonade would...
Money Math: Addition and Subtraction
By: David A. Adler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Cartoon versions of American presidents guide children through this lively introduction to...
Mystery Math: A First Book of Algebra
By: David Adler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab: A Counting by Feet Book
By: April Sayre, Jeff Sayre
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Pigeon Math
By: Asia Citro
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Concept Book
Telling a story about pigeons should be simple. But what's a narrator to do when the...
Place Value
By: David Adler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
In this playful introduction to number values, readers are reminded that “Order is important in...
Stars
By: Seymour Simon
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Do aliens come from the stars? What is that twinkling out there? How long does it take for a...
Superhero School
By: Aaron Reynolds
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Leonard is disappointed in superhero school; the only thing his teacher, The Blue Tornado, talks...
Tally O'Malley
By: Stuart Murphy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos
By: Deborah Heiligman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Paul Erdos grew up in Hungary and was always an unusual child. He enjoyed numbers, was inept at...
The Girl With a Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague
By: Julia Finley Mosca
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
After touring a German submarine in the early 1940s, young Raye set her sights on becoming an...
The Great Graph Contest
By: Loreen Leedy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The Kid's Book of Weather Forecasting
By: Mark Breen, Kathleen Friestad
Age Level: 6-9 years old
In this hands-on science book, kids learn how to make a barometer, record their observations in...
The Wing Wing Brothers: Carnival de Math
By: Ethan Long
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Tiger Math: Learning to Graph from a Baby Tiger
By: Ann Whitehead Nagda
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A Siberian tiger cub born at the Denver Zoo is orphaned when he is just a few weeks old. Through...
You Can, Toucan, Math: Word Problem-Solving Fun
By: David Adler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Various birds appear with riddles asking readers to use addition, subtraction, multiplication...
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Print List
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer
By: Traci Sorell
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Mary Golda Ross designed classified airplanes and spacecraft as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's...
Fractions in Disguise
By: Edward Einhorn
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition
By: Margot Lee Shetterly
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
This edition of Margot Lee Shetterly’s acclaimed book is perfect for young readers. It is the...
Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences
By: Gene Luen Yang
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Can the three friends — Eni, Hopper, and Josh — foil the dastardly principal to save the day?...
Solving for M
By: Jennifer Swender
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
When Mika starts fifth grade at the middle school, her neat life gets messy. Maybe, with some...
Which One Doesn't Belong? A Shapes Book
By: Christopher Danielson
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Every colorful page contains a thoughtfully designed set of four shapes. Each of the shapes can...
Hands-on Activities
Build on what you're learning together through books with these family-friendly activities, experiments, and crafts.
Summer Writing
Give kids a chance to flex their writing muscles all summer long. Try one of these prompts, selected from our writing contest archives and other literacy organizations.
Great Websites for Kids
Dive deeper into topics of interest with these media-rich and interactive sites.
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2020 Census Challenge
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archKIDecture
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Bedtime Math
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Brain Pop: Math
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Engineer Girl
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Gizmos: Measurement
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Math Science Music
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Maths Chase
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Measure Yourself
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Sizing Up the Universe
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U.S. Census: Getting an Accurate Count
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U.S. Census: We Count Everyone in the U.S.A.!
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U.S. Census: We Count Everyone in Your Neighborhood
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U.S.Census Quiz for Kids
Great Podcasts for Kids
Listen and learn with these podcasts especially for kids. These podcasts are free and easy to listen to from any device via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher — or from Listen Notes, a podcast search engine.
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Do the Math!
Wow in the World (NPR) -
Numbers
Brains On!
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The Scientific Buzz on Bees and Math
Wow in the World (NPR)
Educational Apps
Educational apps recommended by Common Sense Media and other trusted reviewers.
More Themed Resources
Growing Readers Tip Sheets
Simple activities for parents and kids to do together to build reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Read online or print the PDF.
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Creating Bar Charts
Download PDF: English | Spanish -
IF kids code, THEN...what?
Download PDF: English | Spanish -
Making Predictions
Download PDF: English | Spanish -
Measure Up!
Download PDF: English | Spanish
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