Shaping Up Summer

Do you think that math matters to the animals and plants? What if nature knew numbers like you? Imagine what shapes and a sense of space could do.

Would spiders draw pictures in their webs? Would narwhals sort blocks of ice by shape? Would insects know what’s above and what’s below? In Shaping Up Summer, the final title in the Math in Nature series, nature comes to life to help children grasp concepts of geometry, symmetry, and spatial sense. This interactive, poetic, and artful picture book series is an enticing way to introduce math to kids — they will laugh, use their imaginations, and learn through activities inspired by the books.

The Story Behind the Book

While helping my kids with their math homework, I was struck by how some of the math concepts seemed to be discussed in more interesting ways than I remembered. But still, one of my kids kept complaining about why they had to learn this stuff, so I decided to play what if–what if animals used math too? That was the inspiration.

From there it was research and putting together the math and the animals. I got to have fun with the idea of animals using math. Wouldn’t you love to see some shapes in a spider web?

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