I read If You Hopped Like a Frog by David M. Schwartz to my 6th graders. They’re learning about ratios, rates, and solving proportions. It’s a beautiful book—equally beautiful are the illustrations by James Warhola.
At the back of the book, the author includes questions you can ask students to work on. I made this worksheet based on that.
Even junior high kids still love being read to. They squeal with delight when I pull out a book—and it doesn’t even have to be an illustrated one.
Earlier this year, I also read How Much Is a Million? (also by David M. Schwartz, illustrated by Steven Kellogg). We were working on number sense, and the kids gave actual oohs and aahs as I read lines like:
How big is a billion? If a billion kids made a human tower... they would stand up past the moon.
If you wanted to count from one to one trillion... it would take you almost 200,000 years.”
Another great resource I faithfully use is Math and Literature, Grades 6–8 by Jennifer M. Bay-Williams and Sherri L. Martinie.
One of the suggested books is A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick. After I read it to my students, they blew bubbles on their desks and measured the diameter of each burst bubble to find its circumference.