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EXPLORE OTHER 'DIVISION' STORIES HERE

A REMAINDER OF ONE​
​Author: Elinor J. Pinczes   
​Illustrator: Bonnie Mackain

Picture
Number of pages: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (USA)
First published in: 1995
Format: Picturebook

Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes
Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Elinor J. Pinczes's Math Books)

Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: ​UK, USA, AUS, IND, CAN

Synopsis by the author/publisher
When the queen of the bugs demands that her army march in even lines, Private Joe divides the marchers into more and more lines so that he will not be left out of the parade.
“The troop had divided by four for the show. The lines all looked even, till they spotted Joe. Her Highness pointed. "We're angry to find a tag-along bug at the end of one line."”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
‘A Remainder of One’ (1995) is a well-known classic story by Elinor J. Pinczes. The story is about Joe, a bug soldier, who gets disheartened as every time he joins in a marching parade with 24 other bug soldiers, he always gets left on his own. They have tried 2 rows of 12 soldiers, 3 rows of 8 soldiers and even 4 rows of 6 soldiers: nothing works until they try 5 rows of 5. The story does a wonderful job in visually demonstrating to very young children what division and a remainder looks like using the array formation. Another great thing about this story is that readers can clearly see how knowledge of division can help meaningfully solve a problem. We can see this story being used by teachers and parents to provide a meaningful and fun context for children to learn about division and remainders using resources, such as counters and Unifix cubes, to represent different total numbers of bug soldiers. This story can also provide a useful context for children to explore the concept and property of prime numbers. All in all, we highly recommend ‘A Remainder of One’ to teachers and parents of children, aged 5+, and the story serves as a perfect extension to another story by Elinor, ‘One Hundred Hungry Ants’, which is also about division, but without any remainder. 
​
Recommended age range:
 
5 years old + 

Relevant topics: 
Division

​Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.

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ABOUT US

MathsThroughStories.org is a non-profit and research-based initiative, based at the University of Reading's Institute of Education (UK).

It sets out to help mathematics learners around the world develop their conceptual understanding in mathematics and to help them foster positive attitudes towards the subject through  the power of storytelling.

Contact Us

  • HOME
  • ABOUT US
    • RESEARCH TEAM
    • On-line Contributors
    • Research Dissemination
    • Research Impact
    • SHOUTOUTS
    • Teacher Training / CPD Services
    • MEDIA APPEARANCES
  • RESOURCES
    • RECOMMENDATIONS
    • BLOG
    • NEWSLETTER
    • BOOK REVIEWS >
      • BOOK REVIEWS
      • INSPECTION COPIES
    • LESSON IDEAS
    • VIDEOS
    • CREATE YOUR OWN MATHEMATICAL STORIES >
      • GUIDELINE FOR MATHEMATICAL STORY AUTHORS
      • INTERVIEWS WITH MATHEMATICAL STORY AUTHORS
    • 'HOW TO' BOOKS
    • RESEARCH ARTICLES
    • PRACTITIONER-ORIENTED ARTICLES
  • COMPETITIONS
    • 2022 YMSA WINNING, SHORTLISTED AND LONGLISTED ENTRIES
    • 2021 YMSA WINNING, SHORTLISTED AND LONGLISTED ENTRIES
    • 2020 YMSA WINNING, SHORTLISTED AND LONGLISTED ENTRIES
    • 2019 YMSA WINNING AND SHORTLISTED ENTRIES
  • NEWS
  • CONTACT US
    • GET INVOLVED