Marcella Koffler Spaghettic and Meatballs for All!

Title: Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!

Marcella Koffler

Author: Marilyn Burns

Illustrator: Debbie Tilley

Recommended Level: Third grade

CCSSM Content Standards: Measurement & Data

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.C.5

Recognize area as an attribute of plane figures and understand concepts of area measurement.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.C.5.A

A square with side length 1 unit, called “a unit square,” is said to have “one square unit” of area, and can be used to measure area.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.C.6

Measure areas by counting unit squares (square cm, square m, square in, square ft, and improvised units).

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.C.7.D

Recognize area as additive. Find areas of rectilinear figures by decomposing them into non-overlapping rectangles and adding the areas of the non-overlapping parts, applying this technique to solve real world problems.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.D.8

Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.

CCSSM Standard for Mathematical Practice:

CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them; MP2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively; MP4 Model with mathematics.

Summary: Mr. and Mrs. Comfort decide to have a family reunion. They invite their immediate family and close neighbors. Thirty two people, including Mr. and Mrs. Comfort, will be attending. Mrs. Comfort orders tables and chairs to seat everyone. She orders eight tables with four chairs at each table. This will seat every guest. But as the guests arrive they begin to rearrange the tables so everyone can sit together. As more guests arrive they combine more tables. Poor Mrs. Comfort! She is not happy. She is worried that there won’t be enough places for for people to sit. But Mr. Comfort is confident that there will be enough seating and keeps combining the tables. Guess what happens? Once everyone arrives there aren’t enough spaces for the chairs. The guests help seperate and move the tables back to Mrs. Comfort’s original floor plan. Everyone has a good time and a chair to sit in.

Rating: 4 out of 5. This is a fun story that connects a real life problem with math, geometry. However it is a little long and gets a bit complicated with details. This could be confusing to follow, espeically for ELLs. A good remedy for this would be to read the story in two sittings, review the story, and draw out the different table configurations as the story progresses. While the story does not directly feature math, areas and perimeters, it demonstartes how math can be used in a real world context to solve problems. In addition the story reflects a situation that most students can relate to. 

Classroom Ideas/Lesson Ideas: This book can be used to demonstrate how math can solve a real life problem, seating all your guests at a dinner party. As we read the story, the students will help draw the different table configurations the guests create on the Smart board. I will review the definition of either perimeter and area depending on the lesson. I will demonstrate/model how to calculate the perimeter on the first table configuration. We will then do a practice as a whole group and review the rules of perimeter. The students will work in small groups, assigned by the teacher, to calculate the perimeter of each table configuration. Students will use connecting squares and draw square units to replicate the different table configurations displayed on the Smart board of each scenario. Each group will demonstrate how they came up with a solution for one of the configurations. As a challenge each group will find a different way(s) Mrs. Comfort could’ve have ordered the chairs so everyone could have sat together.