The Celebrated Jumping Frog

Using the story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County" by Mark Twain, students simulate a jumping-frog contest and determine the distances "jumped." The students record the distance of individual jumps in centimeters and determine the total distance jumped (the sum of the three separate jumps) and the official distance (the straight-line distance from the starting line to the end of the frog's third jump). The students compare the range and median of the total distances with those of the official distances of the group.

Spinning Tops

Students measure distances using standard and nonstandard units and record their measurement in various tables. Then they are asked to use descriptive statistics to report the results. During a top-spinning contest, students measure the distance along a curve using indirect measurement. They record the data for their group in a chart, and compute their individual median and the group median.

Take Away

The following lesson introduces elementary students to subtraction. The objective is to create a link between students' experiences and mathematics. By the end of the lesson it is expected that students have a deep understanding of subtraction and how it relates to their world. This lesson was adapted from "Helping Students Understand Subtraction" by Anita Page, which appeared in the November 1994 Teaching Children Mathematics, Vol. 1, No. 3.

A Brownie Bake

Students determine the amount of each ingredient needed to make brownies, and then they figure out how to divide the brownies evenly among their classmates. This lesson helps students reinforce their measurement skills in a practical situation.

A Lunch-In Affair

Students organize and prepare a luncheon for the entire class. Working in committees, each group of students is responsible for a different aspect of the event.

What's the Weather?

In this lesson, students analyze information represented by pictographs. Students are asked to discuss, describe, read, write, and make predictions about the graphs and the information they contain.

Name Your Tune

The activities in this lesson focuses on studying information displayed in pictographs that report the sales of records, tapes, and compact discs for one week at a music store. The students are asked to discuss and then describe the information and to explain the numbers sold in each category. They are asked to defend their explanation.

History of Populations

The activities at this level focus on studying a series of circle graphs that report the population of the United States and of selected states–Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania–in fifty-year intervals from 1800 to 1950. The students are asked to discuss and describe the information and to explain why the percent of the total population changed for the three states. They are asked to write a justification for their explanation.

Buttons! Buttons!

In the following lesson, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children's literature. Specifically, students use clues to sort and classify buttons.