Author: mriveraa


Sir Cumference and the first round table: A Mathematics Adventure
By:Cindy Neuschwander

Illustrated by: Wayne Geehan

Sir Cumference and the first round table is great book that teaches math with a fun story. The king gathers all his knights from Camelot because he believes that their neighbors, the circumscribers, are preparing to make war. After their first meeting at a rectangle shaped table , Sir Cumference, goes home to his wife Lady Di and his son Radius and complains about a throat ache because of all the screaming he had to so everyone could hear him. With the help of his family they think of different table shapes and try them out with the king and the knights. After several different failed attempts, they finally find a great type of table to hold their meeting in.

As an activity I would give the students a renctangle-shaped piece of cardboard which represents the first table. The students would have to go through the book, and cut their cardboard into shapes just like Sir Cumference did in order to go through the shapes and get the final table. They will have to take notes and make sketches of what they did to make the next shape as well as label them.

 

Distressed Dolphin Seeks Out Help From Human Divers by Meera Dolasia

On January 11th, professional diver and excursion expert, Keller Laros and his team did what they do every night – Lead a group of tourist divers into the ocean off the Hawaiian island of Kona, to experience the stingrays up close. While that in itself was a magical experience, what happened that night, was even more unforgettable!
Kelly says the group was just settling in to view the magnificent giant Mantas when they saw a Bottlenose dolphin swimming toward them. While that in itself was not unusual, what caught the diver’s attention was the mammal’s unusual squeal. As the dolphin came close and almost pushed itself onto Kelly, he realized that it was in distress, thanks to a fishing line that had entangled around it, and was asking for help!
Fortunately for the dolphin, it had picked the right humans –

I chose to read a snippet of this article because I thought it would be great to inform kids that there are other things to check out at the library aside from books. Articles can be informative and update people on current events, and this is important. I think it is important for kids to learn about the world and this article is written for a young audience, with great adjectives and descriptions.