In
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow, a fun childhood
favorite book tells the story of five little monkeys and their escapades before
they go to bed. Before they can reach
their eventual slumber, they must first bathe, put on their pajamas and brush
their teeth. They say goodnight to their
mama and as soon as she closes their bedroom door, the party starts! All five
little monkeys are jumping on the bed. As soon as they start jumping, one falls
off and bumps his head. Their mama
implores them, “no more monkeys jumping on the bed.” Once again, the group of
now only four monkeys goes to bed and start their nightly ruckus, until another
one falls off and bumps his head. Once again, mama tells them what the doctor
said, “no more monkeys jumping on the bed.” The little monkeys continue their
shenanigans until only one monkey remains.
However as soon she is alone in bed, she jumps on the bed and bumps her
head. Finally all of the little monkeys
have bumped their heads and now go to bed.
The
mathematical concept that is apparent in this book is rate of change. After their mama tells each monkey “no more
jumping on the bed,” one more monkey leaves the group. There is a constant rate of change from the
monkeys jumping on the bed. As soon as
the group begins to jump, one monkey falls off, meaning one less monkey per
jump. The numbers decrease from 5 to 4
to 3 to 2 to 1 all the way to 0.
Literature
is an effective way to convey mathematical concepts as well as many different
concepts in the educational world. If a
child were to read this book or another comparable book that relates
mathematical concepts in a friendly way, they would be more relaxed and
confident coming into a learning environment in which they were already
familiar with the concepts. I think that
warming up a student to a topic they might normally find particularly
challenging is a great way to familiarize them with new concepts. Students might also relate to literature
better than being taught through a blackboard and a classroom setting; all
students learn differently and some respond to different mediums.
I think your picture book is very interesting, especially it is very helpful for children to understand the concept of numbers. I also agree that literature helps to learn concepts of educational world, because we can understand concept more easily. For me, I learn by experience rather than reading text book or listing lecture. How about you?
ReplyDeletejulianna,
ReplyDeleteyou are so correct that all students learn differently and respond in different ways to different models of instruction. i think i might look at the concept addressed in this story more along the lines of sequences rather than rate of change because rate of change implies that there is a change in output as well as a change in input. and here there is only one set of numbers, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
otherwise, good job.
professor little