Using Stories to Teach Maths Ages 9 to 11

By Steve Way and Simon Hickton

Make the teaching of Maths a more exciting and creative cross-curricular experience! This new series provides original and fun stories, sketches and poems to use as the basis for teaching objectives from the Mathematics Programme of Study. The stories are supported by differentiated lesson plans and original resources such as card games and suggestions for kinaesthetic activities. Ages 9-11 stories include: Sneaky Circles, Hank Bullman rides into Certain City, Space Chase, Mediaevel Mode, Metric Measures Poem, Ratio Poem. The stories have been road-tested in schools and the children thoroughly enjoyed them!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Allen Group
• Release date: Feb 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781909102101

Book preview

Title page

Using stories to teach

Maths

Ages 9–11

Steve Way & Simon Hickton

Copyright page

Originally published by

Hopscotch, a division of MA Education, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London, SE24 0PB

www.hopscotchbooks.com

020 7738 5454

©2011 MA Education Ltd.

2012 digital version by Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Written by Steve Way & Simon Hickton

Designed by Emma Turner, Fonthill Creative, 01722 717057

Illustrated by Brian Way

All rights reserved. This resource is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright of material in this book and the publisher apologises for any inadvertent omissions. Any persons claiming copyright for any material should contact the publisher who will be happy to pay the permission fees agreed between them and who will amend the information in this book on any subsequent reprint.

Introduction

Hello! We hope you enjoy using this book and that the ideas in it help add to your toolbox of resources for teaching mathematics.

About the series

The main idea behind Using Stories to teach Maths Ages 9 to 11 was to provide a way of looking at maths that the children have to learn in school from a fresh angle. This means that their learning can be enhanced by looking at maths ideas in different ways. Using the stories can be a fun way of helping the children with their learning and their revision. It also helps children to understand maths by encountering it in different contexts, such as the imaginary situations in the stories and in real-life situations. Every different way in which a child (or an adult!) comes across a maths concept enhances a child’s ability to learn and understand the concept and to remember it. The age categories we have put each story in are of course only a guide as all children are different and they can be of interest and use to older or younger children in the same or different contexts.

By making maths fun the barriers to learning that they often create (I can’t do maths, maths is boring or similar phrases that they may have picked up from others) can be dissolved and the children gain more confidence and facility to understand and use mathematical concepts and this can lead to a far more positive approach and attitude to the rest of their mathematical learning. Certainly having used these stories and poems in many schools around the UK we are confident that the children will enjoy engaging with them and learning from them.

The stories and poems in the book have been written and road-tested over a number of years in schools across the UK. They were originally written using the Mathematics Programme of study as a guide to provide ideas for pieces we could write. For this reason we hope that between them the stories and poems can provide a resource for initiating or supporting work for many of the learning objectives of the Mathematics Programme of study.

Therefore in the teacher’s notes we also suggest follow up work, often incorporating worksheets or the illustrations that accompany the pieces, which you can use to create a whole lesson around each piece. Of course suggested lesson plans are only a guide and so you can pick and choose the suggestions and ideas that will work best in your school, with your class etc.

Reading the stories

When you read the children the story we recommend that you read them the story twice. The first time as a story in its truest sense – a story they can listen to and enjoy as a piece of narrative, without it being broken up and dissected as it’s told. Hopefully the enjoyment they get from the story will enhance their enjoyment of the mathematics they are learning. However on the first reading of the story, they may have been so involved in the plot etc that they miss some of the maths ideas that are used in the story. So on the second reading you can get the children to focus on the maths ideas that weaved into the story by stopping at the points where a new concept enters into the narrative and discussing its role in the story, using an enlarged copy. This also means that the children will be able to enjoy seeing – and learning from! – the illustrations as well and many of the children will enjoy reading the story with you.

Using the lesson plans

Within the planning we have added reference statements headed WALT, WILF and TIB as these or similar systems are often used to ensure lessons are focussed, objective led and in context for the learner. They help summarise purpose of the lesson, what is required of the children in order for them to successfully learn that lesson and why what they are learning is important.

WALT stands for We Are Learning Today.

WILF stands for What I’m Looking For.

TIB stands for This Is Because.

The worksheets sheets are designed to support the learning the children are making in mathematics. We recognise that completing them will often require literacy skills, which in some cases the children will not have at the required level. In order that the work remains focussed on mathematics we suggest that you, your classroom assistants etc scribe for such children so that their capability in mathematics is not held back by specific difficulties with literacy.

We hope you enjoy using this book and would welcome all positive suggestions/criticisms that might enhance future volumes!

Contents

Sneaky Circles

A problem solving story involving circles to find a relationship between the diameter and the circumference – with the aim of explaining a generalised relationship in words. Two friends have a race. Henry (the dim athletic one) runs around the circumference of a huge circle thinking that’ll give Thomas (the clever non-athletic one) who’s running across the diameter a bit of a chance!

Maths topic(s): Problem solving involving circles/2D shapes.

Hank Bullman rides into Certain City

An introduction to the ideas of chance/probability. Hank Bullman finds that if something has happened in the past the citizens of Certain City are certain it’s going to happen again on that day. For example though it’s so hot that even the dust was covered in dust, several people are certain it’s going to rain because it rained three days ago.

Maths topic(s): Introduction to probability, general terms for probability, certain, likely, unlikely etc.

Space Chase

An interactive story where the children are recruited into the 25th century police force. The evil Megiddio has escaped from incarceration on a Prison Planet, despite having been frozen in a suspended animation unit. Not only that he’s stolen the Space Commander’s cop craft and is heading off into Sector 47 to destroy the life-forms on as many planets as possible. The sector’s only hope is that the police chasing him in their cop craft and the children can inactivate the devices he sets off on each planet, which can only be done using exciting maths! Should they succeed, each device will supply one part of a code that could be used to inactivate the stolen cop craft! Good luck may the Revithalibnock be with you!

Chapter one: Nums and Doms

Maths topic(s): Equivalent fractions.

Chapter two: Another Time Bomb (apparently)

Maths topic(s): Problem solving using the four rules of number

Chapter three: Planet Factor

Maths topic(s): Factors of numbers

Chapter four: Currency Conundrums

Maths topic(s): Conversion of different units of money

Chapter five: Star Ratio

Maths topic(s): Simplifying ratios

Chapter six: Conversion Conundrums

Maths topic(s): Conversion between different units of measure

Chapter seven: A Whole Range of Averages

Maths topic(s): Calculation of mean, median and mode

Chapter eight: Times-Table Trauma

Maths topic(s): Times tables

Chapter nine: Cornered by Custard, Consumed by a Crocodile and Concerns about Corners

Maths topic(s): Features of triangles and 3D shapes

Chapter ten: DIY Dilemma

Maths topic(s): Volume and surface area

Chapter eleven: The Cops Square up to Megiddio

Maths topic(s): Square numbers

Courtroom conundrums

Conundrum one: Prosecuting Percentages and Fighting Fractions

A courtroom drama in which Fahrana Fraction battles it out with Paul Percentage exploring the connections/differences between fractions and percentages and aiming to convince the judge and watching crowd that their form of maths is the best.

With…

Conundrum two: Decimal Dilemmas

A sequel to the previous story in which decimals are discussed in relation to percentages and fractions, when Paul Percentage and Fahrana Fraction meet the Decimal family on their honeymoon. When could be a better time to forget everything else and discuss mathematical concepts?

And…

Percentages, Fractions and Decimals Poem

A poem comparing percentages, fractions and decimals and how to convert one to the other.

Maths topic(s): Use of Percentages, Fractions and Decimals.

Medieval Mode

A story exploring use of mode, range, median and mean. Having travelled around the world Sir Cumference inherits a castle full of donkeys from his father (Sir Cull). He decides to see how well his servants are doing in selling the donkeys by asking them what their average sales are. Some of the lazy servants think they might be able to make it seem that they’re not doing as little as they are. However Sir Cumference isn’t as easy to trick as they think he is…

With…

Averages poem

A poem about averages!

Maths topic(s): Use of the three forms of average, mean, median and mode, along with use of the range.

Metric Measures poem

This poem explains how prefixes such as kilo- can help us understand the number of units being used.

Maths topic(s): Use of metric measure and the connections between the units.

Ratio poem

A poem exploring how ratios work.

Maths topic(s): Principles behind use of ratios.

Yorkshire Challenges

A series of problems solving challenges inspired by God’s own county. Each of the challenges reveals one part of a code. The final challenge is to work out the connections between the numbers.

Challenge one: Football Transfer

Challenge involving addition and subtraction of fairly large numbers. (Thousands and tens of thousands.)

Challenge two. Film

Challenge involving organising sequencing and timing of events during the day.

Challenge three. Writing Competition

Challenge involving multiplication.

Challenge four. Horse Racing

Challenge involving simple algebra and addition.

Challenge five. Smuggling

Challenge involving logic and time matching.

Sneaky Circles

Programme of study

KS2. Ma 3. 1b. select and use appropriate calculation skills to solve geometrical problems.

1c. approach spatial problems flexibly, including trying alternative approaches to overcome difficulties.

1d. use checking procedures to confirm that their results of geometrical problems are reasonable.

1e. organise work and record or represent it in a variety of ways when presenting solutions to geometrical problems.

1g. present and interpret solutions to problems.

Ma 3 2b. visualise and describe 2D. shapes and the way they behave.

Introduction

We suggest that the follow up to this story is for the children to find out what it was that the character Thomas knows about the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter that his friend Henry doesn’t know. Thomas, portrayed as someone who appreciates the benefit of learning about things, knows that the circumference of a circle is a little more than three times longer than the diameter - it’s actually pi times longer - whereas Henry roughly guesses that it’s only about two times longer. In a bet the athletic but ignorant Henry loses a race with Thomas, when he runs around the circumference of a large circle and Thomas crosses the diameter (with a rest or two on the way!) Whilst Henry’s active lifestyle is to be commended the story will also hopefully give a positive spin on the benefits of exploring mathematical relationships!

Given that the purpose of the exercise is problem solving, the children could be asked to see if they can investigate the relationship on their own, or with varying levels of teacher input, depending on ability. The story gives only a slight clue regarding the relationship between the two dimensions, i.e. that Thomas knows the circumference is more than twice the diameter. Also the race involves a very large circle. The children can therefore investigate two things, firstly to find out what the relationship is between the diameter and circumference of the circles they draw is and secondly whether this, or another, relationship applies for different sized circles. (The incredible thing is the relationship always applies!) This exercise can be differentiated as the children could be asked to explore this relationship with increasing accuracy and higher attainers could be asked to research the history of the increasing accuracy of measuring pi throughout history. (One of the saddest tales is of schoolteacher William Shanks who for 15 years up until 1873 spent his evenings using a complicated formula to work out pi to 707 decimal places. Unfortunately 71 years later it was realised that he made a mistake at the 528th decimal place so all the figures after then were wrong!)

The children could also then investigate the relationships they may find between the dimensions of other simple shapes. (For example squares and rectangles of equal perimeter - the squares cover most area, which could be tested by cutting and placing one over the other.)

Resources

Paper

Wool/cotton

Scissors

Rulers

Compasses

Circle templates

Simple calculators

Planning sheet (provided)

Lesson plan

Explain to the children that after reading them a story called Sneaky Circles that you are going to ask them to investigate the relationship between some of the measurements