Early Math Project

Where does the boy finally find his friend, the dragon?   

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Math Connections: 

            Numbers                 Number Recognition

            Comparison            Counting

            Engineering            Architecture

            Shapes                   Positional Words

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Activities To Do Together:

• As you read the story together, predict where the dragon is going and the number of objects to be counted on the next page. If your child is still learning colors, use the book as an opportunity to practice colors and numbers. Ask questions like, “How many red balloons do you see? What color are the 15 balloons? How many blue boxes are the delivery people delivering? On which floors of the building do you see blue boxes? Where did you see the most objects and where did you see the fewest?”

• Compare the cityscape in the book with the area where you live. How is your neighborhood like the images author Steve Light drew of New York City? 

• Talk about the shapes you see repeated throughout this story. Help your child create a three-dimensional cityscape with recycled boxes or draw a two-dimensional city with pencil and paper. 

• Look at the map on the end pages of the book. Help your child to retell the story by using the map to explain where the boy has looked for his dragon and what objects were found at each place the boy stopped. Ask your child if they would like to retell the story from one to twenty (moving forward) or from twenty to one (moving backward). This might sound like: The boy started looking for his dragon outside of an apartment building. One green dragon was hiding behind a plant. The boy did not see him. Next the boy went to a hot dog vendor’s cart. The vendor sold two hot dogs while the dragon was resting on his hot dog stand…” or if counting down from twenty, “The boy found the dragon on top of a beautiful building that was surrounded by 20 red lanterns. Before that, he had looked for his dragon at a busy intersection with 19 green lights and among 18 bicycles zooming through the park…”

• Encourage your child to create a map that shows a route that they travel. The map might show directions from a park to the library, from home to school, or a path to find a missing object. 

• For more ideas and information about counting with children, check out Early Math Project book reviews for the following children’s literature titles:

• A Frog in the Bog - https://www.earlymathca.org/a-frog-in-the-bog

• One Watermelon Seed - Coming Soon!

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Extension Questions: 

1. Compare the city in Have You Seen My Dragon? to the area where you live. What is similar? What is different?

2. Look at the pictures on the pages with the hot dog vendor and the two hot dogs. What is the dragon doing? Based on the picture, tell somebody what you think will happen before the dragon leaves and goes downtown.

3. Which one of the dragon’s hiding places is your favorite? 

4. Go on a shape scavenger hunt within the pages of this book. On what page(s) can you find a circle, a square, a rectangle, a star, an octagon, a triangle? What other shapes did you find?

5. Why do you think Steve Light, the book’s author, included colored objects among the drawings in this book?

6. How many people have a dog on a leash on the pages that show 14 dogs in the park? How many dogs are at the park without their owner? Which dog would you take for a walk? Why would you choose that dog? 

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Vocabulary for Building Math Concepts:

across, down, high, in, more, through, too, up

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Please check out the Book Guide for Have You Seen My Dragon? for more!

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Online External Resources for Have You Seen My Dragon?:

• Interview with Steve Light After listening to the interview and reading the story, take turns comparing how you and your child are like the dragon and not like the dragon in the story. Do you like to read? Eat ice cream? Visit monkeys? Climb up buildings? etc.

• Activities from Candlewick Press

• Teachers’ Guide from Candlewick Press