Room on the Broom

Title:  Room on the Broom

Posted By: Jillian Meaney

Author: Julia Donaldson

Illustrator: Axel Scheffler

Recommended Grade Levels: Grades K-5+

CCSSM Standards:

Kindergarten

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4
understands the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4.a
when counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4.b
Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4.c
Understand that each successive number name refers to a quantity that is one larger.

Second Grade

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.A.1

Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.A.3

Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.

Summary

The witch and her cat couldn’t be happier. Flying through the night sky on their broomstick – until the wind blows away first the witch’s hat, then her bow and then her want.

Luckily, three helpful animals find the missing items and all they want in return is a ride on the broomstick. But Is there room on the broom for so many new friends? And when disaster strikes, will they be able to save the witch from the clutches of an angry dragon?   

Rating: 

This story gets a five star rating because it is a fun way to teach children different math strategies without making them feel like they are actually doing math. This story is clever and fun for readers of all levels!

Classroom Ideas:

Kindergarten

Count to tell the number of objects. Read the story on the rug as a read aloud to familiarize students with the story. Next, tell the students that you are now going to keep track of how many animals are on the witch’s broom. Give the students a five frame and buttons. Tell them to add a button to the five frames to show the number of people and animals are on the broom as you read. On a smart board demonstrate how you want them to do this. After every animal, you can ask, “can you tell me how many animals are on the broom now?” You can even ask them, “Before we had just the cat, and we added one more animal, the frog. What is one animal plus one” “Can you tell me how many buttons without counting? “How many more buttons can fit in our five frame?”

You can also use the five frame and buttons for subtraction. Tell the students that the witch starts off with four objects. Put three buttons on the five frame and subtract one every time she loses one. You can ask similar questions to the addition lesson.

Last, go over the sequence of animals that came on the broom/objects she lost. (This is also good in teaching ordinal numbers). First there was just the cat, second was the frog, etc.

After completing the activity, arrange students in groups of four. You can practice the skill by playing a dice game. Roll a dice and add that many buttons to the 5 frame. (If you roll a 6, take another turn. If you roll a 5, ask “how many more could you add? – zero!”) After they make their numbers, ask to add/subtract one more to the 5 frame. Then ask, “Can you tell me how many buttons you have without counting?”) Once they perfect the five frames, upgrade to a ten frame.

Second Grade

Room on the Broom?

Read the story on the rug as a read aloud. Ask the students if they think that all of those animals could actually fit on a broom. Allow students to question and make predictions in partnerships. Next, explain to them that you are going to figure out if all those animals would have room on the broom. Start by demonstrating how you are going to measure different animals. Tell the students you are going to represent the witch. Sit on a chair and mark in pencil where your hips reach on chair. Stand up and show students mark, next use a ruler to measure in inches how much room you took up. Tell students for homework they will be measuring items like: broom, dogs, cats, etc. Tell them to pick the correct tools measuring. For animals they can’t measure they are expected to research types and write down the width of the animal. Additionally, tell them that all measurements should be in the same form of measurement. (inches)

The next day, break students into groups. Tell them to AVERAGE the width of their animals in their group. Next, figure out if all those widths would fit across the group’s AVERAGE length of a broom. (Tell them animals are NOT allowed to overlap/sit on each others laps).

Have students share their findings. Discuss why different groups might have come to different answers (broom length, cat length, type of frog used as measurement, etc.)

Advanced Lesson

Combinations/Permutations

Read the story on the rug as a read aloud. Write down the animals as they are picked up. Tell the students you want to see how many different ways you could arrange the animals on the broom. Show the students how many different ways they can be arranged with the witch first (24). Break the class into groups. (You did witch, so the next groups are cat first, dog, bird, frog = 5 total living things) Each group figures out how many different ways they can arrange the animals on the broom if their animal went first. (24 ways each) Afterwards go over as a class and discuss how long it would have taken to figure out all the possibilities if each person had to figure out all the possibilities on their own.

Next, show them how to solve mathematically. So, our first choice has 5 possibilities, and our next choice has 4 possibilities, then 3, 2, 1. And the total permutations are:

5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 120

Next, make them figure out how to figure out on their own how many different ways they could have put the ingredients into the stew!