Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens

Nisha Kalathara

Author: Cindy Neuschwander

Illustrator: Wayne Geehan

Recommended Grade Level: Grades 2-5

Common Core Standards Addressed: Number and Operations in Base 10

Understand place value.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.NBT.A.1

Understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones; e.g., 706 equals 7 hundreds, 0 tens, and 6 ones. Understand the following as special cases:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.NBT.A.1.A
100 can be thought of as a bundle of ten tens — called a "hundred."

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.NBT.A.1.B
The numbers 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 refer to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine hundreds (and 0 tens and 0 ones).

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.NBT.A.2
Count within 1000; skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.NBT.A.3
Read and write numbers to 1000 using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form.

Summary: While planning a surprise birthday party for King Arthur, Sir Cumference and Lady Di send out invitations to the entire countryside. As guests continue to show up they must find an efficient way to count the number of guest so that they know how many people they need food for.

Rating: ***** I gave this book 5 stars because it was a fun read. This is a great book for kids of all ages. It specifically addresses standards for second grade but students learn more in depth about number and operations in Base 10 up until fifth grade. It seeks math into a very entertaining story. In the illustrations in even shows the math in expanded form. Also, at the back of the mini there is a page explaining the math concept that was discussed in a few words. This provides information without throwing a lot of math at the students all at once.

Classroom Ideas: This book can be a great way to start the students off when learning about Numbers and Operations in Base 10. For the younger students it can be a way to introduce them to grouping things by ten. In the classroom, you can have them get up and get themselves into groups of ten to see how many are left over. From reading another book, How many seeds in a Pumpkin? I got a cool idea about an activity that could be done. In the book, the teacher can split the students into three groups assigned to count either twos, fives, or tens. The teacher gives one group a small pumpkin, one group a medium pumpkin, and one group a large pumpkin. Instead, of having the students group by twos, fives, and tens, I can simplify this activity by splitting the class into groups and giving them a pumpkin. However, I would just ask them to group by ten to count the total number of seeds. I think this would be a fun hands-on activity that the kids would love. I feel like this might be something that they are not always able to do and it gives them a chance to get messy and have fun while learning at the same time!