Inch by Inch (1960)

Inch by Inch is a story about an inchworm with a goal to not be eaten. The inchworm meets a Robin, who plans to eat him, but the inchworm comes up with an idea that could save him. He tells the Raven that he is useful, and begins to measure things for the Raven using his body. This story tells the story of the strange companionship between the worm and the raven. This is definitely a good book to incorporate into a math classroom. It provides a fun story and teaches the introduces the idea of measurements and measurement units. It also teaches about the importance of being able to measure, as it ends up saving the inchworm's life! ( )

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A small green inchworm is proud that he can measure anything—a robin’s tail, a flamingo’s neck, a toucan’s beak. One day a bird threatens to eat him if he cannot measure his song. The clever inchworm uses his measurement skills to move inch by inch away from danger. I liked this story a lot, especially how it discussed a math topic in a non-traditional way. Its illustrations also proved to be deserving of the Caldecott honor. ( )

A robin sees an inchworm and wants to eat him but before he can the inchworm stops him. He tells the robin how good he is a measuring things and measures the robin’s tail. When the inchworm was done the robin brought the him to measure other birds nearby. To avoid being eaten inchworm measures them. The inchworm meets a nightingale who wants his song measured. The inchworm tries to explain to the nightingale that he only measures things, but he doesn’t listen. To avoid being eaten, the inchworm measures his song until he is no longer visible.
The clever inchworm went into survival mode when he was threatened to be eaten. He escapes the birds completely by measuring the song of a nightingale until he could not be seen. This would be a good story to help introduce measurement. ( )

When a bird is about to eat the inchworm, he cries out for him to stop. The inchworm tells the bird that he should not eat him because he can be very helpful by measuring things. The bird gets the inchworm to measure his tail, and then, the bird takes him to go measure all sorts of other things. However, a nightingale tells the inchworm that he must measure the song she sings or she will eat him, and the nightingale won’t listen to the inchworm say that he can only measure things, not songs! The inchworm thinks of an idea to escape from the nightingale because he knows there is no way to measure a song in inches. This book opens up a discussion on types of units and what can and cannot be measured in the different units. ( )