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Tally O'Malley
by Stuart J. Murphy
Ten, Nine, Eight
The O’Malleys are driving to the beach. To keep the kids entertained, Mom comes up with some tally games. Will the youngest child, Nell, ever win?
Resources for Tally O'Malley:
Full Book Review (English)
Reseña Expandida (Spanish)
Brief Book Review (English)
Reseña Simplificada (Spanish)
Will Nell ever win the competition between the O’Malley brother and sisters?
Math Connections:
Tallying Counting
Activities To Do Together:
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Look at the pictures on each page, there are many items to count: flowers, animals, cars, etc.
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Discuss real life situations when tallying would be helpful. For example when counting votes or counting all the different kinds of animals at the park.
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The next time you go for a walk with your child, take along paper. Ask them what they would like to tally: types of animals, colors of cars, colors of houses etc. Discuss which category has more tallies and ask your child why they think this is true.
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Show your child how to bundle 5 tallies with 4 vertical lines and a fifth line crossing over. If you have a lot of bundles, you can practice counting by 5s: 5, 10,15, 20…
Extension Questions:
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Discuss the reason for bundling 5s with the cross mark. Why do we do that?
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Have you ever seen someone use tallies? If so, how or in what situation? In what situations do you think you could use tally marks?
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If you were playing the tally game on a road trip which color car would you pick? Why that color? What else could you tally?
Vocabulary for Building Math Concepts:
add, bundle, count, tally