Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone
(Charlesbridge Pub Inc-2003)
By: Cindy Neuschwander
Illustrated by: Wayne Geehan
Grade: 6-8
Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone is a math adventure about Sir Cumference who has to use math skills to determine where the cone is. It is a wonderful and very informational book about math concepts. It makes learning fun, which is what reading is all about! There were a few lines where I had to read it over twice to understand what they were saying, but that is the fun of a mystery. Doing this with the students would be really fun and educational.Theme/Skills Taught: Adventure/shapes, faces, rounding & measuring
About the Author:
Cindy Neuschwander is a native Californian, born in San Diego, CA. Cindy graduated with a BA in International Studies from Willamette University and earned an MA from Stanford University. She has taught all grades in elementary school as well as high school. In addition to her teaching, Cindy is the author of eight published picture books for children with mathematical themes. Cindy began writing books in 1994. She had used math literature with her own classes in the early 1990’s and liked the way students responded to it. She wanted to use more of these books but found there were not many available so she started writing some of her own.Cindy Neuschwander's Bio
About the Illustrator: Wayne grew up in Manchester, Conneticut, on a street with lots of kids.During his down time he used to spend hours in the library, going through stacks and finding illustrated books to take home and read. He didn't always want to be an artist but he did like to draw. In high school he knew that he would be an artist because it was either go to college or be drafted. So upon graduation he moved to Boston where he enrolled in The Art Institute of Boston, an art school that primarily taught advertising design and illustration. He found his first job (after college AND being drafted) in Boston at a company that produced jigsaw puzzles and games. For the first fifteen years he illustrated jigsaw puzzles, games, book covers, and fantasy and science fiction stories. The second fifteen years he illustrated children's books for various publishers. Wayne Geehan's Bio
Post Reading Activities: This would be an introduction to a lesson on shapes, faces, rounding or measuring. This book will get the students interested and ready to learn. Or possibly, the the book as a review to see how much the students have learned and can they apply the information. Write the problems in the board or a worksheet so students can work through the mystery as you read.
I like that you could read this book to students before starting a math lesson just to get them thinking. I was not a big fan of math when I was younger and I feel like if my teachers read some math books to the class I would have enjoyed some of the lessons a little more. This would be a fun to get students thinking about shapes, faces, rounding or measuring. I like your post-reading activity. I think you could use this book and the student's completed work to make a math bulletin board in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteYes! It is really hard to find a good picture book that teaches math. This is great because it gives great activities you could do with the class as you read. It teaches a lot of different concepts which is great too!
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