Pennies for Elephants by Lita Judge (823 J894P PIC BK) was read out loud to the class to set up the unit. After the initial surprise of the grade 5 students passed, the class was gripped.
The book is based on the true story of Bostonian children in 1914 raising more than $6000 to purchase three elephants for the Franklin Park Zoo. This campaign inspired over 50,000 kids to work together all in the name of a good cause. The story includes some ‘clippings’ from the newspapers of the day listing every single donation (even as small as .01) with a running total.
This math unit entailed adding the individual donations collected and recorded in the daily newspapers which became a game between classmates, to see who could get the most right. Information was recorded on number lines demonstrating order and size of numbers. By the end the kids had a much better understanding of the differences between decimals and whole numbers.
A short and emotionally engaging story, connecting math to the real world that makes an impression with both 10 year-olds and teachers is worth checking out .
Update: May 14, 2010 - Check out the following blog at Open Wide, Look Inside for more teaching ideas focused on economics for this title.
Update: May 14, 2010 - Check out the following blog at Open Wide, Look Inside for more teaching ideas focused on economics for this title.
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