Blog3

Sydney Silverman

Math Blog 3

1) In the book “Lemonade for Sale” written by Stuart J. Murphy and illustrated by Tricia Tusa, the members of the Elm Street Kids’ Club realized that their clubhouse was falling down and they needed to make some money in order to fix it. The children decide that in order to make money to rebuild their tree house they will sell lemonade and make a bar graph in order to keep track of their sales. They set up the graph with the number of cups on the y-axis and the days of the week on the x-axis. They began their sale on Monday and sold 30 cups and inputted 30 cups for Monday on the bar graph. On Tuesday they sold 40 cups and inputted 40 cups for Tuesday on the bar graph and made the observation that their sales were going up. On Wednesday they sold 56 cups and inputted 56 cups for Wednesday on the bar graph. On Thursday they only sold 24 cups and inputted 24 cups for Thursday and made the observation that the Thursday sales were lower than the sales from the past days. They realized that the lack of Thursday sales was because their customers were busy watching a juggler down the street. Then the children decided that the next day they would have the juggler juggle next to their stand to attract the attention of customers. On Friday they sold more cups than ever before and added it to the bar graph. The Friday sales put them over their needed sales and they now had enough money to rebuild their tree house.

2) In the book “Lemonade for Sale” the mathematical concept of bar graphing is illustrated. Throughout the book the children use a bar graph to record the rise and fall of their lemonade sales. In math the bar graph uses horizontal or vertical bars to display data in order to compare quantities. Generally one axis will represent types of categories being compared. And generally the other axis will represent numerical values that represent values of the data. In the book the children set up the bar graph with the number of cups of lemonade sold on the y-axis and the days of the week in which they sold the lemonade on the x-axis. The children were able to visually keep track of and see how many cups of lemonade they sold on each day. They were also able to observe the trend of their sales. By looking at the bar graph the children were able to realize that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday their lemonade sales were increasing. Then they were able to realize that on Thursday their lemonade sales went down dramatically which then motivated them to make efforts to increase their sales for Friday, which eventually let them to meet their final goal of lemonade sales. This book effectively and creatively displays the mathematical concept of the bar graph.

3) Literature is an effective way to learn mathematical concepts because it allows children to be taught mathematical concepts and not think of it as learning. It makes it easier for children to understand different concepts because they learn it as a story that is easier for them to comprehend than a lesson in class. This literature can also include pictures that can better illustrate mathematical concepts to children. I think literature is a beneficial and alternative way to teach and learn mathematical concepts.