The Math Curse
Mrs. Z’s 4th & 5th grade math class read the book “The Math Curse” by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith.
The plot summary of the book from Wikipedia describes it nicely:
The book, which is told by a nameless female student, begins with a seemingly innocent statement by her math teacher- “you know, almost everything in life can be considered a math problem.” The next morning, the heroine finds herself thinking of the time she needs to get up along the lines of algebra. Next comes the mathematical school of probability, followed by charts and statistics. As the narrator slowly turns into a “math zombie”, everything in her life is transformed into a problem. A class treat of cupcakes becomes a study in fractions, while a trip to the store turns into a problem of money. Finally, she is left painstakingly calculating how many minutes of “math madness” will be in her life now that she is a “mathematical lunatic.”
Inspired by the story, the students looked around our school and started seeing that math indeed is all around us. In groups, they worked on a storyline to create their own “Math Curse” episodes.
I had shown them previously a video from the Common Craft Show “Wikis in Plain English” and we decided to base the math episodes on their type of explanations and filming style.
Students:
- Spent time brainstorming their stories
- Decided on a math problem they wanted to demonstrate and solve
- Created props and drawings
- Wrote a script
- Practiced their skit
- Directed their own episode
We recorded their episodes with a flip camera and put them together with iMovie.
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