One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab: A Counting by Feet Book

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One is a snail, two is a person, three is a snail and a person, four is a dog, five is a dog and a snail! Using animals and people as the elements to count from one to one hundred, this book uses small numbers to first introduce the concept and then through repetition and building on that concept teaches how to reach much larger numbers. In relying upon the foundation of one through ten, with each number being represented by a cute creature, the reader is taught how to build math skills in a fun, inviting format. This book was clearly made to teach children to count or add. I thought that the way the authors and illustrator presented the material was very unique and fun. The element of humor makes the learning fun and introduces math in a context that is meant to be silly. With one hundred snails finishing the story the original character is brought full circle and the connection between one and one hundred firmly established.

This sequence begins with a focus on developing students’ counting skills to work with numbers beyond 10, then continues on to build early place value understanding as students investigate teen numbers. The key understanding of unitising is introduced as students use a group of 10 and some more ones to represent numbers 11 to 19. The humorous nature of the story is presented in multiple settings with crabs in a pyramid, crabs in a conga line, and crabs headed to the shore with their inner tubes. While they only have two small eyes and a simple mouth this provides ample expression as one crab is left behind with ten spiders, looking rather uncomfortable. This task uses the book One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab to explore numbers up to 20. Students represent numbers using the number of legs on animals in the book and look at how one number can be represented in multiple ways. Students also explore the efficiency of different representations. Lesson 2: One Crab + Some More This ingenious counting book is all about feet. Not the kind with inches. The kind with toes, or paws, or claws. “1 is a snail. 2 is a person. 3 is a person and a snail.” The four-footed dog plus a snail equals five. The eight –footed spider plus a snail equals nine. Ten? Why, ten is a crab! And that means 20 is two crabs. Forty is four crabs, or ten dogs or…you get the picture. And so will kids. No doubt they’ll be eagerly creating their own pedimentary equations in no time.” I tend to agree more with Kristin Harris because I really felt that this book was creative and imaginative especially for a math book. I can remember reading very boring counting books, but this one would have actually kept my attention. I also agree that the illustrations are humorous and colorful. Throughout the book I would catch myself stopping and really taking the pictures in. I think that children would love this book.This is a really clever book which has strong cross curricular links with numeracy. The author is using feet/footprints as a counting tool. This is a great book which can be used across all primary year groups. The author carries on until 10 like this and then moves on to counting up to 100 (100 is ten crabs!) Lots of activities can stem from this book and can span a whole range of maths topics from basic counting to addition to algebra. E.g Are there any other ways we could make 100? (ie. 9 crabs, 1 dog and 6 snails) The concept of using small skills to create a foundation for larger skills is done effectively in this book, using familiar animals and human attributes to allow the reader to see the math and math tools in any setting. Summary: This is a creative book on counting. Sayre uses animals’ legs to teach children to count while also teaching children how many legs different animals have. After reading the book explain to students that they (or their pair) will each get to pull a number from the bag and make that number in 2 ways using the counting feet from the story.

When you are counting by feet then 1 is a snail and 2 is a person and 4 is a dog! This book uses the number of feet on various animals to be the units by which numbers can be expressed. So for example: “40” can be 10 dogs (10 x 4) or 20 people (20 x 2) or 6 insects and a dog (6 x 6 + 4). The book is a humorous and colourful illustration of part-whole thinking. The numbers are printed in a font size that is significantly larger than the text, cueing the reader to their importance. The use of multiple examples for the larger numbers also provides multiple avenues to understand how smaller groups are combined to form one larger group.In providing numerous ways to conceive of numbers, the text and the illustrations give the reader critical repetition. “”30 is three crabs…. or ten people and a crab.” This task continues to use the book One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab. It introduces students to the patterns of our place-value system and the significance of 10. The key understanding of unitising is introduced by asking students to represent teen numbers using one crab, which is the same as using 1 ten. In doing so, students move from using 10 ones to 1 ten.