THE KING'S COMMISSIONERS
Author: Aileen Friedman
Illustrator: Susan Guevara
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Number of pages: 26
Publisher: Scholastic (USA) First published in: 1994 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Marilyn Burns Brainy Day) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, IND, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
A delightful beginning for those learning the concepts of counting, addition, and the place value system encourages children to have fun while learning important math skills. |
“ Following the King's orders, the Royal Organizer arranged the commissioners in rows of 10. There were four rows and 7 commissioners left over. The Princess stood in front of the first row of commissioners. "10," she said. Then she walked to the second row. "20," she said next. Walking along the rows, she continued to count. "30, 40. Plus 7 more makes 47.”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Aileen Friedman’s ‘The King’s Commissioners’ (1994) follows the story of a king who has so many commissioners who help him with all his various problems that he forgets how many commissioners he actually has. With the help of his Royal Advisors, they set out to count the commissioners using the tallying method. The first advisor counts the commissioners in groups of two, and end up with 23 pairs of them and one remaining commissioner. The second advisor counts them in groups of five, and end up with nine groups of them with two remaining commissioners. The King struggles to see how these abstract tally marks tell him anything about the total number of his commissioners. His daughter, the Princess, offers to help. This time, she asks the commissioners to stand in rows and remain where they are. With four rows of ten commissioners and seven remaining commissioners, the Princess announces that there are 47 commissioners altogether. The King is very pleased that someone can finally tell him how many commissioners he has. Annoyed, the advisors try to explain to the King that their tallying method offers the same answer as the Princess’s.
All in all, we have somewhat mixed feelings about this story. On the one hand, we think it can be a useful tool to introduce the concept of tallying and skip counting to very young children. Concerning the latter this links nicely to the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication table facts. The page illustrations of the tallying marks and later of the commissioners standing in rows are particularly useful to help young readers visualising the counting process. However, we find the key message of the story a bit confusing at times because there are just so many concepts (place value, tallying, skip counting, etc.) competing for our attention. For example, the story could be interpreted as belittling the usefulness of the tallying method in favour of having to count concretely (i.e. with the commissioners having to be physically present even after the counting is done). Mathematically speaking, this would seem like a regress in children’s mathematics learning progression. To us, the story would have arguably been more useful to children if it can demonstrate why the more abstract approach like tallying can be useful to them as they continue to master their counting skill. Alternatively, the Princess could have also used the tallying method when counting in 10s too. As it currently stands, the author arguably compares apples with oranges. It was not until the ‘notes’ section at the end of the book that it clarifies that its intended message is on place value, specifically that counting in 10s is linked to our base-10 counting system. In summary, we believe that ‘The King’s Commissioners’ can still be useful to either introduce or consolidate the concepts of place value, tallying, skip counting and multiplication to children aged 6+ years old as long as its limitations above are acknowledged and addressed by teachers and parents in a follow-up conversation with children.
Recommended age range:
6+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Multiplication; Place Value; Skip Counting
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.
Aileen Friedman’s ‘The King’s Commissioners’ (1994) follows the story of a king who has so many commissioners who help him with all his various problems that he forgets how many commissioners he actually has. With the help of his Royal Advisors, they set out to count the commissioners using the tallying method. The first advisor counts the commissioners in groups of two, and end up with 23 pairs of them and one remaining commissioner. The second advisor counts them in groups of five, and end up with nine groups of them with two remaining commissioners. The King struggles to see how these abstract tally marks tell him anything about the total number of his commissioners. His daughter, the Princess, offers to help. This time, she asks the commissioners to stand in rows and remain where they are. With four rows of ten commissioners and seven remaining commissioners, the Princess announces that there are 47 commissioners altogether. The King is very pleased that someone can finally tell him how many commissioners he has. Annoyed, the advisors try to explain to the King that their tallying method offers the same answer as the Princess’s.
All in all, we have somewhat mixed feelings about this story. On the one hand, we think it can be a useful tool to introduce the concept of tallying and skip counting to very young children. Concerning the latter this links nicely to the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication table facts. The page illustrations of the tallying marks and later of the commissioners standing in rows are particularly useful to help young readers visualising the counting process. However, we find the key message of the story a bit confusing at times because there are just so many concepts (place value, tallying, skip counting, etc.) competing for our attention. For example, the story could be interpreted as belittling the usefulness of the tallying method in favour of having to count concretely (i.e. with the commissioners having to be physically present even after the counting is done). Mathematically speaking, this would seem like a regress in children’s mathematics learning progression. To us, the story would have arguably been more useful to children if it can demonstrate why the more abstract approach like tallying can be useful to them as they continue to master their counting skill. Alternatively, the Princess could have also used the tallying method when counting in 10s too. As it currently stands, the author arguably compares apples with oranges. It was not until the ‘notes’ section at the end of the book that it clarifies that its intended message is on place value, specifically that counting in 10s is linked to our base-10 counting system. In summary, we believe that ‘The King’s Commissioners’ can still be useful to either introduce or consolidate the concepts of place value, tallying, skip counting and multiplication to children aged 6+ years old as long as its limitations above are acknowledged and addressed by teachers and parents in a follow-up conversation with children.
Recommended age range:
6+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Multiplication; Place Value; Skip Counting
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.
