THE PERFECT SPLIT
Author: Lori Haskins Houran
Illustrator: Deborah Melmon
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Number of pages: 27
Publisher: Kane Press (USA) First published in: 2022 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Mouse Math) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, IND, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
Melty's has games! Pizza! Prizes! Albert and Leo promise to split everything evenly, from the food to the tickets to the prizes. But some things just can't be split. When it comes to one special prize--winner takes all! Every Mouse Math title includes back matter activities that support and extend reading comprehension and math skills, plus free online activities. |
“The boys opened the bag. Inside were seven balls - six red ones and a glittery, glow-in-the-dark ball. "We each get three red balls," said Albert. "What about the special ball?" Leo asked.”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Lori Haskins Houran’s ‘The Perfect Split’ (2022), one of the latest titles in Kane Press’s Mouse Math series, follows a young mouse named Albert and his friend Leo in their trip to a video game arcade. There, they decide to split everything equally from pizza slices and pieces of pepperoni toppings to the number of game tokens and prize tickets won. So far so good until they realise that the prize they have enough tickets for is a bag of seven rubber balls. The story provides very young children a meaningful and engaging context to learn the concept of comparing and ordering numbers as well as division. A useful feature of this book is the symbolic and pictorial representations of the different number comparisons throughout the story. Like the other titles in the series, this book also comes with follow-up activities that teachers and parents can do with their children once they have read the story, for example, children could be asked to provide their mathematical reasoning to a question “Would you rather share 12 tokens between 2 people or share 20 tokens among 4 people?”. All in all, we highly recommend ‘The Perfect Split’ to introduce the concept of comparing and ordering numbers as well as division to children, aged 4+ years old.
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Comparing and ordering numbers; 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.
Lori Haskins Houran’s ‘The Perfect Split’ (2022), one of the latest titles in Kane Press’s Mouse Math series, follows a young mouse named Albert and his friend Leo in their trip to a video game arcade. There, they decide to split everything equally from pizza slices and pieces of pepperoni toppings to the number of game tokens and prize tickets won. So far so good until they realise that the prize they have enough tickets for is a bag of seven rubber balls. The story provides very young children a meaningful and engaging context to learn the concept of comparing and ordering numbers as well as division. A useful feature of this book is the symbolic and pictorial representations of the different number comparisons throughout the story. Like the other titles in the series, this book also comes with follow-up activities that teachers and parents can do with their children once they have read the story, for example, children could be asked to provide their mathematical reasoning to a question “Would you rather share 12 tokens between 2 people or share 20 tokens among 4 people?”. All in all, we highly recommend ‘The Perfect Split’ to introduce the concept of comparing and ordering numbers as well as division to children, aged 4+ years old.
Recommended age range:
4+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Comparing and ordering numbers; 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.
