Customer Reviews

Jelly Beans for Sale

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful book for elementary aged children but preschoolers can benefit too! The book teaches basic concepts of money and counting by illustrating how children exchange money for jelly beans. The book has lively photographs with coins and jelly beans that match children's outfits.

There is even a handy section in the back of the book with "The History of Jelly Beans" and "Presidents, Coins & Jelly Beans".

Also includes information for how elementary school teachers can obtain a classroom kit for jelly beans and counting - complete with stickers & a poster.

I homeschool my 4 1/2 year old son. We enjoy many different activities, but math is often a struggle! He is good at it, he just does not seem to find the time for it. After getting this book, however, we just spent 30 minutes in the dining room counting out coins and jelly beans. He can't wait to sit down and do math again(but I have to wait for his blood sugar to level out again!) The book gives very concrete examples of all the different coin combinations from 1 cent to 25 cents. We also enjoyed reading about how jelly beans are made. I got a kick out of this book as I grew up during the Reagan administration, when Jelly bellies were such a hit!

Buy this book, and a big bag of jelly beans and have fun with your kids for hours--they may even learn something:)

My daughter first saw this book at the library when she was 2 and a half. We checked it out and she loves it!!! She looks for it every time we go to the library. I am finally buying our own copy of it. The bright colors are what caught her attention and the pictures of the kids are entertaining. Now at age 3, she knows how jelly beans are made and has a basic understanding of money. Even though she does not know she is learning money and math concepts every time we read it, she enjoys it. She knows which coin is a penny, which is a nickel, etc... Buy this book! You will be pleased.

Bruce McMillan is the author of many math- and science-themed books for elementary students. This one illustrates the value of different American coins, from the penny to the quarter. Cheerful children in candid photographs are depicted showing how much money they possess, then on the facing page they are shown enjoying the jelly beans they have purchased (1¢ each). The number of jelly beans being enjoyed increases with the denominations of coins. The book doesn't tell a story and is primarily pictorial, although there is an interesting endnote which explains the history of jelly beans (a cross between Jordan almonds and Turkish delight), describes the seven-day process by which modern jelly beans are produced, and mentions that Ronald Reagan held an affinity for jelly beans, even sending them into space. This note may be more interesting to teachers than elementary students, however.

The main weakness of this book is that, although the photo subjects seem to be having lots of fun, the eighties-style photos seem to be poorly exposed. Nevertheless, this is a great method to teach various denominations of coins. I recommend it as a library-checkout, especially if the teacher/parent is able to set up a private jelly bean store afterwards for some buying practice.

This book was in very poor condition. It had been retired from a public library after being well worn. The seller most likely obtained it from a library sale for a dollar or less and then advertised it as "Good condition" with a selling price of $15.30. I will not purchase anything from this seller again.