Friendship

This is a great book to use when talking about trying something new and stepping outside of your comfort zone. The friends had manners and tried Turtle's soup and were all pleasantly surprised. Students could write about a time that they did something they did not really want to do but ended up happy that they did it. Sometimes taking risks is worth it!

I like this book because of the writing. The text follows a consistent pattern throughout the book. Each page entails turtle adding more places to the table. It makes it easy for the reader to follow along. I also enjoyed this book because it incorporated math in the text. This book can be used to introduce a math lesson or reinforce a mathematical concept. I think the main idea of the book is to introduce the mathematical concept of sets but also can be used as a story about manners. Each of the characters that sits at the table do not want to hurt turtle’s feelings and say that they do not want his “green and slimy” soup. They each are polite and sit at the table with turtle anyway. ( )

Seaweed Soup by Stuart J. Murphy and Illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz is a very entertaining and educational book that helps students age 3 and up understand the concept of putting things in set. The story is about Turtle who cooks up a thick and green, gooey and slimy soup for lunch. Turtle starts off by setting 4 things on the table to eat with and that is the first set of objects in the story. The story progresses with Turtle seeing a number of his friends and inviting him/her to lunch, and then setting the table with a set of utensils for each. I found this book very good at keeping a child's attention. Remkiewicz did a good job with the illustrations, and they went along with the story perfectly. Also, the title page and the pages prior to the title page were colorful. Another good aspect of the book is how the illustrator had the background all the same color with different designs around the edges to go along with the story. The book wasn't too wordy nor were there a lot of pictures to distract a child.
The copyright (which has a summary of story) and the dedication are on one page. There is a page called "Review of all the Sets", which shows what the students saw throughout the book, an "For Adults and Kids" page which gives some good questions for an adult to use to see if the children understood the concept of sets, and a game that can be played that goes along with the concept of sets.
I really enjoyed this book and I think it was put together in a way to brings forth learning. ( )

This is such a wonderful, sweet story that goes way beyond math. The turtle is incredibly kind and unselfish, continuing to put his friends first, and his friends go out of their way not to hurt his feelings and so try his soup. It's also a nice reminder that your home doesn't have to be in perfect order to have your friends over!