Math in a story-Bianca Flores

Title of Book: Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong

Summary:

There once lived an old, humble couple named Mr. and Mrs. Haktak who lived in a shack and were very poor. One day while Mr.Haktak was digging in his garden his shovel hit something hard, he dug deeper and out came an ancient brass pot. Mr.Haktak decided to take the brass pot home and dropped 5 gold coins and decided to put them in the pot for safe keeping. Once home, Ms.Haktak inspected the pot and accidently dropped her one and only hair pin inside. While looking inside the pot, Ms.Haktak was surprised and pulled out not one but two hairpins and 10 gold coins. Astonished Mr.Haktak decided to put his coat in the pot to see if it would also double. The coat did indeed double and from then on Mr. and Mrs. Haktak worked all night putting things in the pot. In the morning Mr.Haktak set off to the village with a basket full of coins from the pot. While Mr.Haktak was gone, Mrs.Haktak continued to inspect the pot and stood over it. Mr.Haktak kicked the door open since his hands were full, startling Mrs.Haktak. Mrs.Haktak was so startled she fell into the pot, Mr.Haktak running over to save his wife. However instead of there being only one Mrs.Haktak there were now two and in the midst of bickering Mrs.Haktaks, Mr.Haktak fell over into the pot as well and now there were two Mr.Haktaks and two Mrs.Haktaks. One of the Mrs.Haktaks saw this as an opportunity to have company and so from then on the Haktaks built two identical houses with two of everything and inside one of these houses was hidden a big brass pot that the Haktaks were super careful to never fall into again.

Mathematical Concept:

Two of Everything is a great representation of a linear function and how it could be used in the real world. At the beginning of the story, Mr.Haktak has 5 gold coins and after putting them into the pot he then finds the 5 gold coins have become 10 gold coins. Each item that is put into the pot doubles, the number of coins the Haktak have increasing rapidly demonstrating linear growth as eventually they have enough to fill a basket. The expression that represents this growth is 2N for N, the amount of items initially put into the pot, is greater than zero and is then doubled. This story is a great example of a linear function for each time a number of items is put into the pot that number is then doubled creating a constant slope of 2.

Literature is a great way to teach/learn a mathematical concept because for those who learn best visually, storylines can help in making the concept more understandable and relatable.