Lit Block Blog

Once Upon a Dime: A Math Adventure, by Nancy Kelly Allen, is about an organic farmer named Truman Worth and he finds an unusual tree growing on his farm, and decides to try different kinds of fertilizer on it to help it grow. The tree begins to grow different kinds of money and begins to change his life tremendously. This is a great book to read for a shared group reading to get them engaged and intrigued about counting money. You can introduce counting money by reading this book to the whole class, and you can even make a lesson that centers around the book to help keep them stay interested in the lesson. You can use it as something to do after teaching a lesson on how to count money and knowing what coins are what and what bills are what. You could make different math activity centers to go with the story to help reinforce the math lesson that you taught. By using this book it is a great way to tie reading into a math lesson. You could use this book for grades first through second grade.