Lemonade
for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy
Lemonade for sale is a story about 4 kids that live on elm street
who entertain their selves with a club house (decorated hammock), that happened
to be falling apart, so they wanted to repair it. After realizing that they
have no money left in their piggy bank, one of the children, Danny, suggests
that they make 30-40 cups of lemonade to accumulate money for the their broken
down club house. Sherry suggests that they keep track of sales via a bar graph.
On Monday they sold 30 cups, 40 cups on Tuesday, 56 cups on Wednesday, 24 cups
on Thursday, and more than 90 cups on Friday. On Thursday they realized that a
new neighbor was taking their customers by juggling on the corner. They invited
the juggler to juggle by the lemonade stand and sales skyrocketed on the graph,
which allowed the kids to have enough money for their clubhouse. Hooray!
Lemonade for sale does a great job at
depicting how to graph data. The book didn’t explain independent and dependent
variables, but if there was a mathematical lesson based off of the book, one
could show children that the days listed at the bottom of the bar graph were
the independent variables and the cups sold, on the y-axis, were the dependent
variable. I think the book made a good choice by choosing a bar graph to the
plot the information, since bar graphs are the easiest. However, the author
could have decided to plot the data with a scatter plot.
Literature is a great way to teach
mathematical concepts because it visually depicts the mathematical scenario. In
my opinion having a visual example of a math problem helps me recall definitions
and concepts better. Also, kids will enjoy learning if the learning process is
engaging and fun. Involving literature with pictures is a great way to
contingently appeal to a diverse pool of needs.
yasmine,
ReplyDeletei LOVE that you identified the fact that the story didn't deal with introducing the concept of inputs and outputs but that this could be a spin off lesson using this text. excellent observation. are you sure you don't want to become an educator? ;)
i also like that you included the benefits of visual representations in your own learning.
professor little