SIR CUMFERENCE AND ALL THE KING'S TENS
Author: Cindy Neuschwander
Illustrator: Wayne Geehan
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Number of pages: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing (USA) First published in: 2009 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Sir Cumference and Charlesbridge's Math Adventure) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
Sir Cumference and Lady Di planned a surprise birthday party for King Arthur, but they didn’t expect so many guests to show up. How many lunches will they need? And with more guests arriving by the minute, what about dinner? Sir Cumference and Lady Di have to figure out a quick way to count the guests to bring order to the party. |
“It took a while, but the Camelot guests were finally organised. They had eight groups of one thousand, nine groups of one hundred, eight groups of ten, and seven singles. Lady Di sent a messenger back to the castle to add 8,987 to the 1,012 guests who were already there for the evening feast.”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Cindy Neuschwander’s (2009) ‘Sir Cumference and All the King’s Ten’ is the sixth title in the Sir Cumference series. The story follows Lady Di of Ameter and Sir Cumference who want to throw King Arthur a surprise birthday party by inviting people from around the country to come to the castle for the celebration. As one large group of guests arriving after another, Lady Di of Ameter needs to know how many guests are there altogether so enough food can be prepared. Sir Cumference initially asks the guests to stay in a single line so he can count them one by one, but soon realises that this will take a while. Readers will see how knowledge of place value can provide a much quicker and more efficient counting strategy. We like this story as its context clearly shows a useful application of place value. The illustrator also does a good job in capturing the large magnitude of guests throughout the story. At times, we however feel the pace of the story could have been slightly faster. All in all, ‘Sir Cumference and All the King’s Ten’ is a great story picture book to introduce the concept of place value to children aged 7+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author)
Recommended age range:
7+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Place Value
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.
Cindy Neuschwander’s (2009) ‘Sir Cumference and All the King’s Ten’ is the sixth title in the Sir Cumference series. The story follows Lady Di of Ameter and Sir Cumference who want to throw King Arthur a surprise birthday party by inviting people from around the country to come to the castle for the celebration. As one large group of guests arriving after another, Lady Di of Ameter needs to know how many guests are there altogether so enough food can be prepared. Sir Cumference initially asks the guests to stay in a single line so he can count them one by one, but soon realises that this will take a while. Readers will see how knowledge of place value can provide a much quicker and more efficient counting strategy. We like this story as its context clearly shows a useful application of place value. The illustrator also does a good job in capturing the large magnitude of guests throughout the story. At times, we however feel the pace of the story could have been slightly faster. All in all, ‘Sir Cumference and All the King’s Ten’ is a great story picture book to introduce the concept of place value to children aged 7+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author)
Recommended age range:
7+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Place Value
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.
