Blog Post Three- Jonathan Murray

1. For my post I chose the book "Lemonade For Sale" by Stuart J. Murphy. The book is about a bunch of children, the Elm Street Kids, who are selling lemonade. They keep track of their lemonade sales using bar graphs. They need the money as their clubhouse is falling apart, and their piggiebank is empty. They say if they can sell 30-40 cups of lemonade each day for a week they could get the money to fix the club house. Sheri, a member of the Elm Street Kids, makes a bar graph with the days of the week on the X axis, and the number of cups sold on the Y axis. A graph like this:

  They each have a specific role to play when they set up shop on Monday. Each kid does something to help make the lemonade. On Monday the Elm Street Kids sold thirty cups of lemonade, so they fill in the bar graph up to thirty on the Monday column. The next day, Tuesday, they sell forty cups, so they fill up the Tuesday column on the graph up to forty. It is at this point that Petey the Parrot squawks: "Looking good. Looking good". Petey actually squawks "Lemonade for sale!" so many times on Wednesday that they get a lot more customers. That day they sold fifty six cups, they made it in between fifty and sixty on the bar graph for Wednesday, as they didn't have a spot for fifty six. On Thursday though, they didn't get many customers. On that day they only sold twenty four cups. They put twenty four on the Thursday column for the graph, scribbling in just a little before halfway between twenty and thirty. They figure out why no one really came that day, there was someone juggling down the street from them. The Elm Street Kids meet the juggler, whose name is Jed, and the kids get an idea. On Friday that bring Jed to their lemonade stand to juggle! More people came by than ever before. Their sales were through the roof! In the end, they rebuilt their club house, and invited Jed to join.

2. The mathematical model in this story is graphing. Graphing is represented in the Elm Street Kids' bar graph documenting their lemonade sales daily. In the beginning of the story the graph is empty, but as each day progresses they fill in that day's column with their number of sold cups of lemonade. In this the organization of a bar graph, and how to use it for recording are demonstrated to kids. The reason for both the X and Y axises are shown by how the days of the week are on the X and the number of cups sold on the Y. Finally they sell so many cups on Friday that they cannot even record the amount, showing how you should correctly label your axises.

3. Literature is a great way to teach mathematics. This is because it is a right brained way to teach it, and for right brained people who struggle in math, like me, it is helpful to learn it in non abstract ways. For children with math problems establishing tangible ways to express abstract concepts such as graphs can be helpful for them to get a grasp on the concept. Not only that but picture books are fun, and with that they help make math fun. If math is fun to children they will learn it easier and not struggle, which is incredibly important for them as they grow up and go through school.