1. Click Your Heels 3 Times!
Using the Power of Storytelling
to Bring Math Concepts Home
• Tina Rohde and Colleen Shaskin
• WonderWeavers - Storytellers
• www.wonderweavers.com

2. Math is Stories are
more than more than
numbers! words!

3. From the
beginning
of time
there was
Story. . .

4. Storytelling and Story Listening!
• Builds relationships and
creates community
• Is interactive
• Increases comprehension and
prediction skills
• Exercises imagination
• Entertains
• Increases language and
reinforces math skills

5. How
we
learn

6. Neurons:
Building Blocks of the Brain

7. A Baby’s Brain
• 100,000,000,000
neurons at birth
• Each has about 10,000
dendrites (branches)
• 1,000,000,000,000,000
possible configurations
• 17% of the neurons are
wired at birth

8. A child’s
journey into
literacy

9. What Children Need for
Language Development
• Enriched environment
• Secure environment
• Loving environment
• Conversation
• Exploration
• Limited TV

10. 600 words/ hour 1200 words/ hour 2100 words/ hour
Our words make a positive difference
in a child’s life!

11. When asking questions allow Wait Time.

12. Stories & Math are all around us!

13. Standards of Math
from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• Thinking Math • Content Math
• Problem Solving
• Communications • Patterns and Relationships
• Reasoning • Number Sense & Numeration
• Connections
• Geometry and Spatial Sense
• Measurement
• Fractions
• Estimation
• Statistics and Probability

14. Thinking Math
• Problem Solving
• Communications
• Reasoning
• Connections
Problem Solving is key in being able to do all other aspects of math.
Storytelling and story play stimulate children to use
all of the Thinking Math skills

15. Content Math
• Patterns and Relationships
• Number Sense & Numeration
• Geometry and Spatial Sense
• Measurement
• Fractions
• Estimation
• Statistics and Probability

16. Patterns and Relationships
Patterns are
things that
repeat.
Relationships
are things
that are
connected
by some
kind of
reason.

17. Number Sense & Numeration
• Ability to think and work with numbers easily

18. Geometry and Spatial Sense
• Shape, Size, Space, Position,
Direction and Movement

19. Measurement
• Length, Height, Weight, Time, How Big or Little

20. Fractions
• Parts of a whole

21. Estimation
• More than, Less than, and educated guess about
size or amount
How Many?

22. Statistics and Probability
Minutes/Day
70 •Using graphs and charts
60
•Statistics tells the stories about our
50
world
40
•Probabilities tell the likelihood of
30
something occurring
20
10
0
98th 80th 50th 20th
percentile percentile percentile percentile
Reading Outside School

23. Putting it all together!
Using a story across the
math curriculum

24. Use What You Know!
• Playing with Math and Story

25. Storytelling, Literacy and Math
experiences lead to …

26. Click your heals three times…
• Make learning fun for you and for your students.
• Hands on learning experiences work best.
• The things we do each day shape children’s lives and
build strong foundations for their future.