DIVIDE AND RIDE
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator: George Ulrich
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Number of pages: 28
Publisher: HarperCollins (USA) First published in: 1997 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (MathStart) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
Scream down the Dare-Devil Coaster and whirl around in the Twin Spin cars! Join in the carnival fun as 11 friends divide up to fit on the 2-to-a-seat roller coaster and the 4-to-a-cup teacups ride. Making new friends and practicing predivision skills have never been so exciting! |
“For the Satellite Wheel, again we'll divide. It holds 3 people per chair, and each chair must have 3 before we can ride. We can fill 3 chairs, but 2 friends are left over from our groups of 11 best friends. 11 divided by 3 = 3 full chairs ... with 2 friends left over.”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Stuart Murphy’s (1997) ‘Divide and Ride’ is part of the impressive 63-title MathStart series. The story follows a group of 11 best friends who want to go on carnival rides. Some of these rides have two-people seats, others have three- and four-people seats. As these seats have to be filled up before each ride can begin, the children constantly have to work out how to group themselves. Due to 11 being a prime number, there is always one person being left out (a remainder), and additional children are consequently invited to join their group to fill up the seats for each ride. Through the storyline and George Ulrich’s page illustrations, children can visually see how division works and what a remainder means in real life. This helps children to contextualise the concept. Additionally, not only do the illustrations depict division through images of children filling up the seats, they also include a mathematical model at the bottom of each page to represent the divisional situation in a different way as well as corresponding numerals to help children connect visual representation with symbolic representation. Like the other stories in the MathStart series, useful recommendations for teachers and parents on how mathematics learning opportunities can be extended from the story are offered at the back of the book. All in all, ‘Divide and Ride’ is a great story picture book to introduce the concept of division and remainders (as well as prime numbers) to children aged 6+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author)
Recommended age range:
6+ years old
Relevant topics:
Division; Prime numbers
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.
Stuart Murphy’s (1997) ‘Divide and Ride’ is part of the impressive 63-title MathStart series. The story follows a group of 11 best friends who want to go on carnival rides. Some of these rides have two-people seats, others have three- and four-people seats. As these seats have to be filled up before each ride can begin, the children constantly have to work out how to group themselves. Due to 11 being a prime number, there is always one person being left out (a remainder), and additional children are consequently invited to join their group to fill up the seats for each ride. Through the storyline and George Ulrich’s page illustrations, children can visually see how division works and what a remainder means in real life. This helps children to contextualise the concept. Additionally, not only do the illustrations depict division through images of children filling up the seats, they also include a mathematical model at the bottom of each page to represent the divisional situation in a different way as well as corresponding numerals to help children connect visual representation with symbolic representation. Like the other stories in the MathStart series, useful recommendations for teachers and parents on how mathematics learning opportunities can be extended from the story are offered at the back of the book. All in all, ‘Divide and Ride’ is a great story picture book to introduce the concept of division and remainders (as well as prime numbers) to children aged 6+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author)
Recommended age range:
6+ years old
Relevant topics:
Division; Prime numbers
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.
