"Grandma's Button Box" and "The Button Box"

Grandma's Button Box (Math Matters)
by Linda Williams Aber
Illustrated by Page Eastburn O'Rourke

Playing with Grandma's buttons, a girl drops the button box and spills them all over the floor. Her brothers help her to retrieve them to put them back, but how were they organized? The children sort and resort them before putting them carefully into the compartments of her button box so that Grandma will not be unhappy with the disorder. When Grandma arrives, she is pleased to find them organized because they were in a "big jumble" before, and she could never find the buttons she wanted. The story is well-written and provides an excellent stimulus for sorting and categorizing objects, an essential mathematics skill for children that is also enjoyable.


The Button Box
by Margaret S. Reid
Illustrated by Sarah Chamberlain

This is the original story about a child exploring his grandma's button box. The boy and his grandma think about each button's characteristics and where it might have come from. Although there isn't much of a plot, it provokes thoughtful consideration of attributes of objects, an important math skill for young children. Most children love sorting small objects like buttons, and with a little guidance from an adult, can learn to see more than just color or size as attributes.


Story Props for "Grandma's Button Box" and "The Button Box"