Uno's Garden

Title: Uno's Garden

Author and Illustrator: Graeme Base

Recommended Grade Level: 3-5

NCTM Content Standards: Number and Operations, and Algebra

Summary of the Book: This book is about a character named Uno, who goes to visit a forest one day. He decides that he would like to move to the forest and make it his permanent home. He is amazed at the beautiful plants and unique animals. As more and more people make their way to this forest, and more buildings are put up, the animals and plants start to disappear. Eventually the forest is no longer full of plants and animals and the occupants decide to leave. Uno and his family stay and slowly allow for the plants and animals to come back.

Suggestions for Use: The three different mathematical patterns, subtraction, squares, and doubles, are not explained explicitly in the story, so students could figure out what pattern is being used in the increasing or decreasing amounts that are represented. Once they understand the concepts, students could write out words or word problems to describe the content on a certain page. For example they could deal with 9 times 9 equals 81 plants and have to say “there are 9 different types of plants, and there are 9 of each of these different types, how many plants are there in total?” You could also have them go through and write a word problem using subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, and doubles. This book could also extend beyond mathematics instruction and spark a conversation about environmental concerns.

-Lindsay