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Colors Versus Shapes (2014)

by Mike Boldt(Favorite Author)

3.52 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0062103032 (ISBN13: 9780062103031)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

HarperCollins

review 1: In this book, colors and shapes come to an audition, and they both hope that judges would pick them as winners. The book is packed with action, as both sides try to outdo each other to show how great they are. Colors demonstrate their mixing ability and shapes combine to produce other shapes. In the end, in all the commotion, a color runs into a shape and they combine into a colored shape. Suddenly both sides get an idea. The judges are surprised to see that colors and shapes worked together to create a beautiful scene. They make a decision that both colors and shapes are winners.This is clearly a picture book because the pictures are crucial in getting the main message across. The text is sparse, emphatic and easy to read, which makes it suitable for early readers, or as ... morea read-aloud, whereby teacher can model fluency and expression.This is a good book to use with kindergartners, and possibly first-graders. There is very little text, so it can be used for shared reading and pointing out high-frequency words in the text, as well as punctuation (especially exclamation point!) Concepts to teach with this book are primary and secondary colors and color mixing (for example, blue and yellow make green), as well as names of different shapes. (Teachers should be aware that some kindergartners might know simple shapes, but not the more complex ones like heptagon and octagon, for example, so they should consider building up their background knowledge first.) This book is easy to dramatize in the classroom, with kids playing different shapes/colors. Some ideas for discussion include cooperation vs. competition, working together to make something (just like colors and shapes made a scene together), and how different does not necessarily mean better or worse (colors and shapes are both good and useful in their own way.) Teacher can come up with some other ideas of competing things (like books vs. cartoons). They can examine advantages of both sides and write down students’ suggestions on chart paper (shared writing project.) They can share ideas how the two sides could cooperate (for example, books are often used as stories to make cartoons.)This book follows Mike Boldt’s “123 versus ABC” which was also written as a competition between numbers and letters. Teacher can present this other book to the class as well, and have students compare and contrast the two books (for example, they are both about competition and in the end both sides win by working together; but how they cooperate is different.) It is easy to integrate this book with arts. Children can use shapes and colors to make their own scene, either by making a collage (to mimic the book), or by using paints/crayons/markers. Teaching shapes (or reinforcing students’ knowledge about shapes) makes math integration more fun and engaging for kindergartners.
review 2: This book has a cute concept that kids will probably enjoy. However, those looking for a concept book on shapes will probably want to look elsewhere. Many of the shapes mentioneed (heptagon, octagon, nonagon, rhombus, irregular polygons) are grouped onto a single spread with no indication as to which shape is which. Kids already familiar with their shapes will definitely have fun reading this book. Yet, those who don't will be lost. less

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