Early Math Project

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The Most Magnificent Thing

by Ashley Spires

The Napping House

What happens when making the most magnificent thing ends up being more difficult than you thought?

Math Connections: 

engineering                   perseverance

construction                  growth mindset

Activities to Do Together:​

• Discuss how your child learned something recently like riding a bike or tying their shoes. At first they couldn’t do it, but with effort and practice, now they can. Math can be like that too!

• Bring in some found or recyclable materials and build a “Most Magnificent Thing” with your child. Remind them that the girl in the book made some mistakes along the way, but she learned from her mistakes and made it better. Mistakes are how we learn!

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Extension Questions: 

1. What did the girl do that made you think she will succeed in building the most magnificent thing? 

2. When things went wrong, what did the girl do?

3. Can you think of a time that something you were doing didn’t work out the way you wanted it to? What did you do? 

Vocabulary for Building Math Concepts:

big, heavier, long, measures, pair, ratio, round, shapes, sort, small, square