For Fun Math this week, we did a riddle out of Arithmetickle written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz.
What is 6+3+4+1+5+7+2+4+12+2+4+10+3+1?
The numbers in the problem were the answers to 14 Where's Waldo type questions found in the poem "How Many Coconuts?" on page 21 of the book.
Brynne went out to one of our trees and picked a bucket of acorns to use as coconuts. I drew a grid on printer paper to help keep her "coconuts" contained.
We read the poem in full, and then read each line separately. Brynne found what it was asking for, i.e. "How many toes on the three-toed sloth?", to get the answer to the question in each line. Then she counted out that number of "coconuts" and put them on the grid.
When the poem was over, she had 14 grid squares containing "coconuts". So, she just added them together to get the answer.
It was really fun. She wants to do more of these riddles, so I will hang onto the book for another couple of weeks for us to use.
More fun math ideas are at love2learn2day. Go see!
Great lesson...sounds like a good book to get..kids love riddles.
ReplyDeleteMarcia :)