Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens

$Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens book cover$

Grade 3
4 skill lessons · 4 math-through-reading

Math

Skill lessons

The mathematics the book carries, taught directly. Printable workbook pages and teacher keys are not available for this book yet.

1Ten Ones Make a Ten: Building the King's Lunch Count
2Nine Groups of a Hundred: Writing What the Groups Say
3Four Tents in a Row: Why Each One Is Ten Times the Last
4Too Slow: Finding Out Why the Crowd Had to Be Grouped

Math + reading

Math through the reading

The same book, entered through a sentence it prints. Change one word in the reading and the numbers change with it.

5Groups of a Hundred, Not a Hundred Groups
6Three Must Join Seven First
7How Many Came to the Feast?
8Which Way Should Lady Di Count?

Reading

Reading and language lessons

The same book read as a text. What a word means in its sentence, how a character is shown, how the writing is put together - no mathematics.

9Rushed, Crashed, Bulged: The Verbs That Do the Work
10First, Next, Then: Retelling How the Party Came Together
11The King's Face: Reading a Feeling the Book Never Names
12It Looked As If: The One Comparison in the Whole Book
13The Next Time You: Where the Story Stops and the Author Turns to You

Both exports carry any edits you have made. Edits are saved in this browser only — nobody else sees them, and they are not sent anywhere.

Skill lessons

4 lessons on the mathematics the book carries. Printable workbook pages and teacher keys are not available for this book yet.

1. Ten Ones Make a Ten: Building the King's Lunch Count Concept · Regrouping ten ones into a ten and ten tens into a hundred

The book gives a crowd nobody can count and then fixes it by grouping, first into rows of ten and then into groups of one hundred, and it prints the count that results as nine hundreds, eight tens and seven ones. Students repeat that repair with beans: they fail to count a loose pile, snap ones into tens, band tens into hundreds, and read the piles off as one number. What they learn is the exchange itself, that ten of one unit becomes one of the next, felt as a physical trade rather than recited as a rule.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Build the lunch count in loose ones (5 min)
Each group takes 987 beans and no trays, and tries to count them into one pile the way the crowd first stood in the meadow. Stop the count at two minutes wherever it has reached and say the number you got to. Compare your stopping number with the group beside you and say aloud whether the two of you agree.
Word preview: count, crowd
Counting the crowd seemed like an impossible job.
My head spinning, just trying to keep a track of all those numbers.
2. Snap ten ones into a ten (6 min)
Load ten beans into each ten-frame strip until no strip is short. Say ten ones make one ten each time a strip fills, and set the full strips in their own pile. Count the leftover loose beans and say how many ones are still not in a strip.
Word preview: ten, row, ones
Could you get together in rows of ten, and could three of you join that line of seven to make another row of ten?
There are also eight rows of ten and one row with only seven.
3. Stack ten tens into a hundred (5 min)
Band ten filled strips together and say ten tens make one hundred as the band goes on. Keep banding until fewer than ten loose strips remain. Say the count now as hundreds, then strips, then loose beans, in that order.
Word preview: hundred
If we put ten rows together, they would equal 100, she said.
Two new groups of ten joined the other eight rows of ten and made a new group of one hundred.
4. Say the number the piles make (4 min)
Point at the hundreds pile, the strips and the loose beans in turn and say nine hundreds, eight tens, seven ones. Then say the one number those three piles are together. Say which pile you would go to first if someone asked you to hand over one hundred beans.
Word preview: hundreds, tens
That's 900 plus 80 plus seven.
I'm counting nine groups of 100, said Lady Die.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Snap ten ones into a ten (5 min)
Load ten beans into each ten-frame strip until no strip is short, saying ten ones make one ten as each strip fills. Count the loose beans left over and say how many ones are not in a strip.
Word preview: ten, ones
Could you get together in rows of ten, and could three of you join that line of seven to make another row of ten?
2. Stack ten tens into a hundred (4 min)
Band ten filled strips together and say ten tens make one hundred as the band goes on. Say your count as hundreds, then strips, then loose beans.
Word preview: hundred
If we put ten rows together, they would equal 100, she said.

Three levels

Support: Work with 87 beans instead of 987, so the banding step never happens and the whole exchange is ten ones for one ten, done eight times. Keep the ten-frame strips and the place mat exactly as they are; the only load removed is the second exchange.
At Grade: Work with 987 beans and carry out both exchanges, ones into tens and tens into hundreds, then read the three piles as nine hundreds, eight tens and seven ones.
Extension: After the piles are built, take three beans from another group and add them to the seven loose ones. Snap the new ten, band nothing yet, and say what the count is now and which pile changed. Then say what would have to happen if two more strips arrived.

English learners

The exchange language is the load, not the counting. Ten ones make one ten uses make for an exchange rather than for building or creating, and a child whose first language marks this with a different verb will hear ten ones making something new rather than becoming one thing. Rehearse the frame Ten ___ make one ___ with the strip in hand, filling the blanks aloud each time a strip fills, so the words arrive with the physical trade. Group names in a child's strongest language are welcome for the piles; invite them, and let the child say ten ones make one ten in that language first and then in English while touching the same strip.

Materials

Tubs of dried beans, about 1,000 per group
Two-minute timer
Ten-frame strips, 100 per group
Rubber bands
Place mat labelled hundreds, tens, ones
Word cards: ten, hundred, regroup

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

2. Nine Groups of a Hundred: Writing What the Groups Say Representation · Reading and writing four-place numbers in expanded parts

The book never writes a number in columns, but it says two of them out in full as groups of a thousand, groups of a hundred, groups of ten and singles, and it prints the matching numeral both times. Students take those spoken groups, set out coloured cards for each, write one digit per column and then run the trip backwards from the digits alone. A digit stands for a count of groups rather than for itself, which is the whole of what the written form does.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the Camelot count off its groups (5 min)
Listen to the sentence naming what the Camelot travellers brought and set out that many cards of each kind: eight thousand-cards, nine hundred-cards, eight ten-cards, seven one-cards. Say the four amounts aloud in that order. Do not write a number yet.
Word preview: groups, singles
They had eight groups of 1,000, nine groups of 100, eight groups of 10, and seven singles.
2. Write the number the cards name (5 min)
Write one digit under each colour of card, left to right, so the digit tells how many cards of that colour are there. Read the number you wrote aloud. Check it against the number the messenger carried back to the castle.
Word preview: digit
Lady Dysent a messenger back to the castle to add 8,987 to the 1,000 and 12 guests who were already there for the evening feast.
3. Break the number back apart (5 min)
Take the number you wrote and say it as a sum of the four amounts, the way the book says the lunch count. Lay the cards out again from your written digits alone, with the sentence covered. Say which digit told you how many hundred-cards to take.
Word preview: place, value
That's 900 plus 80 plus seven.
A digit's place tells its value or how much it is worth.
4. Move one digit and say what it cost (5 min)
Swap the digit in the hundreds column with the digit in the tens column and rebuild the cards to match. Say the new number and say which is larger and by how many cards. Say why the same two digits make two different numbers.
Word preview: larger
Each digit's place or tent is 10 times bigger than the one to its right.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read the Camelot count off its groups (5 min)
Set out cards to match the sentence naming what the Camelot travellers brought: eight thousand-cards, nine hundred-cards, eight ten-cards, seven one-cards. Say the four amounts aloud in that order.
Word preview: groups, singles
They had eight groups of 1,000, nine groups of 100, eight groups of 10, and seven singles.
2. Write the number the cards name (4 min)
Write one digit under each colour of card, left to right, so the digit tells how many cards of that colour are there. Read the number aloud and check it against the number the messenger carried.
Word preview: digit
Lady Dysent a messenger back to the castle to add 8,987 to the 1,000 and 12 guests who were already there for the evening feast.

Three levels

Support: Use the lunch count instead, which has three places and no thousands: nine hundred-cards, eight ten-cards, seven one-cards. Write three digits under three colours. The task is unchanged; only the fourth place is removed.
At Grade: Use the four-place Camelot count, write the four digits, rebuild the cards from the digits alone, and swap two digits to see the number change.
Extension: Set out a count with no ten-cards at all, seven thousand-cards, four hundred-cards and two one-cards, and write it. Say what has to go in the tens column and why leaving a gap there would name a different number.

English learners

Groups of a hundred and hundreds are the same amount in two grammatical shapes, and the book uses both within a page. A child who has learned hundreds as a plural noun may not hear nine groups of 100 as the same thing, and will set out a hundred groups. Rehearse the frame ___ groups of ___ , said while the hand sets down that many cards of one colour, and then the shorter ___ hundreds over the same cards, so both shapes attach to one arrangement. In languages that build number words strictly by place, children often read the written form more reliably than the spoken groups; invite that child to say the number in their strongest language first and then point to the digit that matches each part.

Materials

Place-value cards in four colours: thousands, hundreds, tens, ones
Recording strip with four labelled columns
Word cards: digit, place, value

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

3. Four Tents in a Row: Why Each One Is Ten Times the Last Reasoning · Each place holds ten times the place to its right

The book pitches four tents whose capacities are nine, ninety, nine hundred and nine thousand, and closes by saying each place is ten times bigger than the one to its right. Students build the four capacities in cubes, fit each inside its neighbour to find the ten, and state the rule with a number in it before the book states it for them. Students arrive at the ten by measurement across three pairs and notice it does not change, rather than being told a rule and illustrating it.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Fill the four tents to their limits (5 min)
Build each tent from the book with cubes: fill the tiny tent to nine, the next to nine rows of ten, the next to nine groups of one hundred, the last to nine thousand. Say each tent's largest crowd aloud as you finish it. Say which tent you would send a group of forty to.
Word preview: hold, rows
To the left of the tiny tent that fit nine people or fewer, the castle workers pitched a bigger tent.
It could hold up to nine rows of ten, or ninety.
2. Measure each tent against its neighbour (6 min)
Set one tent's largest crowd beside the next tent's and find how many of the smaller fit inside the larger. Say the answer for every neighbouring pair. Say whether the answer changed as you moved along the row of tents.
Word preview: bigger
Next to that tent there was an even bigger one for as many as nine groups of one hundred.
An enormous tent was next for crowds of up to nine thousand.
3. Say the rule the tents follow (4 min)
Say the rule you found in your own words, using a number, then check it against the book's last sentence when the teacher reads it. Say what the tent to the left of the tiny tent would have to hold if the row went on.
Word preview: times
Each digit's place or tent is 10 times bigger than the one to its right.
4. Send a crowd to the right tent (5 min)
Take a card naming a crowd and put it in the tent that holds it without spilling. Say why the next tent down is too small, using the tent's limit as your reason. Do this for four cards.
Word preview: assigned
So they assigned each guest to a tent.
There were 90 in the second tent next door.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Fill the four tents to their limits (4 min)
Build each tent from the book with cubes: nine, nine rows of ten, nine groups of one hundred, nine thousand. Say each tent's largest crowd aloud as you finish it.
Word preview: hold, rows
It could hold up to nine rows of ten, or ninety.
2. Measure each tent against its neighbour (5 min)
Set one tent's largest crowd beside the next and find how many of the smaller fit inside the larger. Say the answer for every neighbouring pair and whether it changed along the row.
Word preview: bigger
Next to that tent there was an even bigger one for as many as nine groups of one hundred.

Three levels

Support: Work with the first three tents only, nine, ninety and nine hundred, so there are two neighbouring pairs to measure instead of three. Build and fit exactly as the others do; the thousand-cube is the only load removed.
At Grade: Build all four tents, measure all three neighbouring pairs, and state the rule with a number in it before the book's sentence is read aloud.
Extension: Ask what the tent one place further left would hold, and build the argument from the rule rather than from cubes, since the class has none that large. Then say how many of the tiny tent's crowds would fill that tent, and say how you got there without counting.

English learners

Ten times bigger is the phrase to rehearse and it is treacherous, because times here multiplies while times in ordinary speech counts occasions, and bigger invites a child to think of physical size rather than capacity. Anchor it to the fitting action: say ___ of these fit inside this one while the hand pushes the smaller into the larger, and only then say ten times bigger over the same pair. The comparative suffix on bigger has no counterpart in many languages, where a separate word carries more; accept more big while the mathematics is right and recast it. A child may state the rule confidently in their strongest language before finding the English comparative, and that is the order to invite.

Materials

Interlocking cubes, ones, ten-rods, hundred-flats and thousand-cubes
Recording strip with four labelled columns
Crowd cards naming amounts from 6 to 8,400
Word cards: times, place

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

4. Too Slow: Finding Out Why the Crowd Had to Be Grouped Application · Grouping by tens as a method for counting a large amount

The book tries three ways to count a crowd, a loose mill, a queue and finally grouping, and rejects the first two in the characters' own words before the third works. Students run the same three attempts against a timer with beads, fail at the first two, and then count by tens and hundreds fast enough to hand the result to another table to read. What students do is choose a method and have a reason from their own trial, not being handed the method that works.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Try the crowd three ways (6 min)
Your table gets a jar of about 200 beads and three minutes. Count them once in a loose heap, once in a single line passed bead by bead, and once by dropping them into cups of ten. Write the number you reached and where you stopped for each of the three.
Word preview: queue, count
Counting the crowd seemed like an impossible job.
So the group formed a queue.
2. Say what went wrong with each way (5 min)
Say what stopped each of the first two ways, using your own numbers as the reason. Match your two complaints against the two the book's characters make. Say whether your table's trouble was the same as theirs.
Word preview: slow
Too slow, noted lady die.
My head spinning, just trying to keep a track of all those numbers.
3. Count the same beads by tens and hundreds (5 min)
Fill cups to ten, then set ten full cups on a tray to make a hundred. Say your total as hundreds, tens and ones. Say how long the third way took against the three minutes the first two ran out of.
Word preview: quickly, hundred
That would make this counting go even more quickly.
If we put ten rows together, they would equal 100, she said.
4. Recount to prove it holds (4 min)
Hand your trays and cups to another table and have them read your total without emptying anything. Say whether they got your number. Say what about the arrangement let them read it so fast.
Word preview: grouped
The crowd grouped themselves as Sir Cumference directed.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Try the crowd three ways (5 min)
Your table gets a jar of about 200 beads and two minutes. Count them once in a loose heap and once in a line passed bead by bead. Write the number you reached and where you stopped each time.
Word preview: queue, count
Counting the crowd seemed like an impossible job.
2. Count the same beads by tens and hundreds (4 min)
Fill cups to ten, then set ten full cups on a tray to make a hundred. Say your total as hundreds, tens and ones, and say how long it took against the two minutes that ran out.
Word preview: quickly, hundred
That would make this counting go even more quickly.

Three levels

Support: Use about 60 beads and cups only, with no trays and no hundreds. Run the loose heap and then the cups of ten, and say which was faster using your own two numbers. The comparison is unchanged; only the second grouping is removed.
At Grade: Run all three attempts with about 200 beads, name what stopped the first two, and count by tens and hundreds fast enough for another table to read your trays.
Extension: Say what you would do if the jar held about 2,000 beads and the class had the same three minutes. Say what new container the tray would have to go into and how many trays would fill it, and say whether your cups would still be the right size to start with.

English learners

The load in this lesson is comparative and causal rather than numerical: too slow, faster than, that is why. Too slow means unusably slow rather than very slow, and a child who reads too as very will not hear a method being rejected. Rehearse the frame The ___ way was too slow because I only reached ___ , which forces the child's own number into the complaint and makes the rejection quantitative. Because carries the whole reasoning here and its clause order is reversed in several languages; accept the reason stated first and recast. Invite the child to say which way was fastest in their strongest language while pointing at the three recorded numbers, then supply the English frame over the same three numbers.

Materials

Jars of about 200 beads
Cups, 25 per table
Three-minute timer
Recording strip with four labelled columns
Trays, 3 per table
Word cards: group, quickly

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

Math through the reading

The mathematics is reached through a sentence the book prints: change one word in the reading and the numbers change with it. These carry their own standards, matched against these lessons rather than inherited from the skill ones.

5. Groups of a Hundred, Not a Hundred Groups Integrated · Students swap the words around a number in the book's own sentences and build both results in cubes to see which quantity each phrasing names.

Students swap the words around a number in the book's own sentences and build both results in cubes to see which quantity each phrasing names.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Build what the sentence says (6 min)
Students hear the Camelot sentence and build each of its four phrases in cubes, one phrase at a time, saying the phrase aloud as the pile grows.
2. Trade the two numbers and build again (6 min)
Students take one phrase, trade its two numbers, and build the second pile beside the first. They say both phrases over the two piles and say which the book meant.
3. Test a phrase that does not change (4 min)
Students trade the numbers in ten rows of ten and find the pile is the same size. They say why this one did not change when the others did.
4. Say the whole guest list (4 min)
Students read the four phrases in order and say the one number the four piles make together, then say which phrase they would change to make the crowd smaller by nine hundred.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Build what the sentence says (6 min)
Students hear the Camelot sentence and build each of its four phrases in cubes, one phrase at a time, saying the phrase aloud as the pile grows.
2. Trade the two numbers and build again (6 min)
Students take one phrase, trade its two numbers, and build the second pile beside the first. They say both phrases over the two piles and say which the book meant.

Three levels

Support: Work with two phrases rather than four, eight groups of 10 and seven singles, and build both piles before trading either. Say both phrasings over the two piles with the frame supplied on a card, ___ groups of ___ , and point at the pile as you say it.
At grade: Build all four phrases from the Camelot sentence, trade the numbers in two of them, and say which phrasing the book meant for each, using the piles as the reason.
Extension: Find the one phrase in the sentence whose trade leaves the pile the same size and say what is special about it. Then write a phrase of your own whose trade changes the crowd by the largest amount you can manage, and say how much it changed by.

English learners

The whole lesson rests on of, which here means each one contains rather than belonging to. Nine groups of 100 tells a child to make nine piles containing a hundred each, and a child who reads of as a possessive will look for one group that belongs to a hundred. Rehearse ___ groups of ___ with two hands, one showing how many piles and one showing how big, so the two numbers land in different places before either is spoken. Word order is doing the mathematical work here, and in languages where a classifier or a case ending marks the counted noun instead, the English order will feel arbitrary rather than load-bearing; say both phrasings over the two built piles every time rather than explaining the rule. Invite the child to name the two piles in their strongest language first, and accept a correct pointing at the book's pile before the English phrase is fluent.

Materials

Base-ten cubes, ones, ten-rods, hundred-flats and thousand-cubes
Phrase cards carrying the four phrases from the Camelot sentence
Two building mats per pair
The Camelot sentence written large
A frame card reading groups of

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

6. Three Must Join Seven First Integrated · Students restore the order of the regrouping that turns 987 guests into 1,012 and show the count at every stage, finding the one move that cannot happen early.

Students restore the order of the regrouping that turns 987 guests into 1,012 and show the count at every stage, finding the one move that cannot happen early.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Set the count before anyone arrives (5 min)
Students build nine hundred and eighty-seven on the place mat as nine hundreds, eight rows of ten and seven loose counters, and say the three parts aloud.
2. Order the moves and carry the count (8 min)
Students receive four event strips out of order, lay them in the order they think the book used, and carry out each move on the mat, saying the count after each.
3. Find the move that cannot go first (4 min)
Students try putting the two-new-rows move before the three-join-seven move and find the hundred cannot be made. They say what was missing, naming the number of full rows.
4. Say the new count (3 min)
Students read the mat as hundreds, tens and ones and say the number, then check it against the book's sentence when it is read aloud.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Set the count before anyone arrives (5 min)
Students build nine hundred and eighty-seven on the place mat as nine hundreds, eight rows of ten and seven loose counters, and say the three parts aloud.
2. Order the moves and carry the count (8 min)
Students receive four event strips out of order, lay them in the order they think the book used, and carry out each move on the mat, saying the count after each.

Three levels

Support: Work with three strips rather than four, leaving out the last two guests, and stop the count at one thousand and ten. Build the mat with the eight rows already made so the first move is the three joining the seven, and say the count after each move with the strips laid out in front of you.
At grade: Order all four strips, carry the count on the mat after every move, and say why the three must join the seven before the two new rows can join the eight.
Extension: Suppose only two latecomers had arrived instead of twenty-five. Say which of the four moves could still happen and which could not, and say what the count would be. Then say the smallest number of latecomers that would still let the hundred be made.

English learners

Before and after do the reasoning here and they are the hardest words in the lesson, because the mathematical order and the order of telling can differ: a child may say the hundred was made and then correctly explain that the rows came first. Rehearse the frame ___ has to happen before ___ because ___ , with a hand moving left to right along the four strips, so sequence is carried by position as well as by the word. Many languages mark sequence with a verb ending or a particle rather than a preposition, and children often produce the right order with the wrong connective; accept the strips laid correctly as evidence and recast the sentence. Have the child say the running count aloud in their strongest language at each move, since the number is the reason and it should not wait on English.

Materials

Counters, about 1,050 per pair
Place mat labelled hundreds, tens, ones
Four event strips carrying the moves
Ten-frame rows
The arrival sentence and the new-total sentence written large

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

7. How Many Came to the Feast? Integrated · The story never prints the number of guests at the evening feast; students find it from the two counts the book does print and cite the sentence that funds each.

The story never prints the number of guests at the evening feast; students find it from the two counts the book does print and cite the sentence that funds each.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Hunt for the number that is missing (4 min)
Students are asked how many guests ate the evening feast and search the story for the number. They report that it is not there and say where the story stops instead.
2. Find the two sentences that fix it (6 min)
Students find and copy the two sentences carrying the counts, and say for each whether it names guests already present or guests arriving.
3. Build both counts and join them (6 min)
Students build each count in cubes on a place mat, push them together, and exchange wherever a place holds ten or more. They say the total.
4. Write the answer with its evidence (4 min)
Students write the total and copy beneath it the two sentences they used, marking which part came from which.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Hunt for the number that is missing (4 min)
Students are asked how many guests ate the evening feast and search the story for the number. They report that it is not there and say where the story stops instead.
2. Find the two sentences that fix it (6 min)
Students find and copy the two sentences carrying the counts, and say for each whether it names guests already present or guests arriving.

Three levels

Support: Work with the two sentences already found and copied on a card, so the search is done and the addition is not. Build both counts in cubes and exchange where a place overflows, then say the total aloud and point at the sentence that gave each part.
At grade: Search for the missing number, find and copy the two sentences, build and join both counts with exchanging, and write the total with its two evidence lines.
Extension: The book's closing pages describe the guests as nine groups of one thousand, nine groups of one hundred, nine groups of ten and nine single guests. Check your total against that description and say whether they agree. Then say why the story could name the crowd that way without ever adding anything.

English learners

Already there and arriving are the phrases the whole task turns on, and they are the ones most likely to be skimmed. A child who reads both counts as guests without hearing which is which may add correctly and still be unable to say why either number belonged in the sum. Rehearse the two frames The ___ guests were already there and The ___ guests arrived, spoken while the hand rests on the mat for the first and moves in from outside for the second. Perfective and directional marking differ sharply across languages and already is often carried by a verb form rather than a word; accept the correct mat gesture as evidence of the distinction and supply the English phrase over it. Both evidence lines may be discussed in the child's strongest language before either is written, since the writing is the last step and not the reasoning.

Materials

Base-ten cubes to nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine per pair
Place mat labelled thousands, hundreds, tens, ones
Copies of the two evidence sentences
Recording sheet with a line for the total and two lines beneath
The messenger sentence written large

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

8. Which Way Should Lady Di Count? Integrated · The characters try three ways to count the crowd and reject two; students take a position on which way to use for a crowd of their own and defend it with their own timings.

The characters try three ways to count the crowd and reject two; students take a position on which way to use for a crowd of their own and defend it with their own timings.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Hear the objections (3 min)
Students hear the two complaints the characters make about counting and say in their own words what each character was worried about.
2. Count it twice and time both (7 min)
Each pair counts the same jar twice, once one by one and once in cups of ten, recording the total and the time for each.
3. Take a position and say the numbers (6 min)
Students say which way Lady Di should use, giving both their timings as the reason, and hear a partner who may have different numbers.
4. Write to Lady Di (4 min)
Students write two or three sentences to Lady Di naming the method they recommend and both of their numbers.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Count it twice and time both (7 min)
Each pair counts the same jar twice, once one by one and once in cups of ten, recording the total and the time for each.
2. Take a position and say the numbers (6 min)
Students say which way Lady Di should use, giving both their timings as the reason, and hear a partner who may have different numbers.

Three levels

Support: Use a jar of about forty and count it both ways with a partner keeping the time. Speak the letter to your partner before writing it, using the frame I think Lady Di should ___ because counting one by one took ___ and counting in tens took ___ , with your own two numbers in the blanks.
At grade: Count a jar of about two hundred both ways, record both totals and both times, take a position and write it to Lady Di with both numbers in it.
Extension: Argue the strongest case against your own position. Find a crowd size for which the method you rejected would actually be the better one, say what that size is, and say what changes as the crowd grows. Then say whether you want to change your letter.

English learners

The argument language is the load: I think, because, but, so. Because carries the reasoning and its clause order is reversed in many languages, so a child may give the reason first and the position second and be entirely correct; accept it and recast rather than correcting the order. Rehearse the frame I think Lady Di should ___ because it took ___ , said aloud to a partner over the two recorded times before any writing happens, so the numbers are in the mouth before they are on the page. Hearing a partner's different numbers is where the disagreement becomes real, and that exchange should happen in whichever language lets both children actually understand each other, with the written letter in English afterwards.

Materials

Jars of countable objects, about 200 per pair
Cups, 25 per pair
A timer per pair
Recording strip for two totals and two times
Letter paper
The two objection sentences written large

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

Reading and language lessons

5 lessons on the reading and language the book carries - what a word means in its sentence, how a character is shown, how a text is built. No mathematics: these are matched against the English language arts curricula, which are a different and smaller set than the mathematics ones.

9. Rushed, Crashed, Bulged: The Verbs That Do the Work Concept · Choosing the strong verb the author chose

This book almost never tells you that the castle is busy or that the crowd is out of control. It picks a verb and lets the verb say it. Students collect the verbs out of three short spans, sort them by how much force each one carries, and then test a verb by swapping in a flatter one and saying aloud what the sentence loses. The skill is choosing and judging verbs, not counting anything the verbs describe.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Underline the doing words (5 min)
Read this span twice, once silently and once aloud with a partner. Underline every word that tells you what somebody DID: sent, rushed, built, sewed, began, showed, filled. Say to your partner which one of those seven sounds like the fastest movement and which sounds like the slowest.
Word preview: rushed, erected
Lady Di sent out invitations. Servants rushed about the castle cleaning and cooking. Carpenters built long wooden tables while seamstresses sewed tents. Guests began arriving in groups. Each day, more kept coming. Lady Di showed the guests where to stay. Rooms filled up quickly.
2. Weigh two verbs against each other (5 min)
Read this span aloud. The author could have written that the tent got full. Instead the tent bulged. With your partner, say one sentence beginning 'Bulged is stronger than got full because...' and finish it with something a person could actually see. Do the same for rushed inside against went inside.
Word preview: bulged
On the edge of the meadow, the castle workers erected a small tent. Immediately, knights, ladies, and villagers rushed inside. It bulged dangerously.
3. Find the loudest verbs in the book (5 min)
This is the noisiest span in the story. Circle crashed and falling. Then tell your partner what you HEAR when you read it, using the verbs to say why. Add crashed to your verb-swap log next to the flat word you would have used instead.
Word preview: pandemonium
Pandemonium broke out. Knees marching high, knocked into arm swinging wide. The nights of the round table crashed into one another. Falling into metallic heaps.
4. Rank your verbs and defend the top one (5 min)
Look back over the three spans reprinted here and pick the single verb you think works hardest. Write it at the top of your verb-swap log, write the flat word underneath it, and say one sentence out loud to your group defending your pick. Your reason has to point at what the reader can see or hear, not at whether you like the word.
Lady Di sent out invitations. Servants rushed about the castle cleaning and cooking. Carpenters built long wooden tables while seamstresses sewed tents. Guests began arriving in groups. Each day, more kept coming. Lady Di showed the guests where to stay. Rooms filled up quickly.
On the edge of the meadow, the castle workers erected a small tent. Immediately, knights, ladies, and villagers rushed inside. It bulged dangerously.
Pandemonium broke out. Knees marching high, knocked into arm swinging wide. The nights of the round table crashed into one another. Falling into metallic heaps.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Underline the doing words (5 min)
Read this span aloud with a partner and underline every word that tells what somebody did. Say which one sounds fastest and which sounds slowest.
Word preview: rushed, erected
Lady Di sent out invitations. Servants rushed about the castle cleaning and cooking. Carpenters built long wooden tables while seamstresses sewed tents. Guests began arriving in groups. Each day, more kept coming. Lady Di showed the guests where to stay. Rooms filled up quickly.
2. Weigh two verbs against each other (4 min)
Read this span aloud. Say one sentence beginning 'Bulged is stronger than got full because...' and finish it with something a person could see.
Word preview: bulged
On the edge of the meadow, the castle workers erected a small tent. Immediately, knights, ladies, and villagers rushed inside. It bulged dangerously.

Three levels

Support: Support: work only with the first span and only with three verbs, rushed, built and filled. Say aloud what each one looks like when a person does it. Do not do the swapping.
At Grade: At Grade: work all three spans and finish the verb-swap log with a flat word beside each strong verb.
Extension: Extension: take bulged and crashed and rewrite each sentence twice, once with a weaker verb and once with an even stronger one, then read all three aloud and say which the author would have chosen and why.

English learners

Strong English action verbs often have no one-word match in another language, so a learner may reach for a phrase instead: 'the tent got very full' for bulged. That phrase is correct and should be praised; the work is hearing that one English word can carry the whole picture. Give the frame 'Bulged means it got so full that ___.' Invite students to name the strongest verb for this scene in their strongest language first, then find its English partner together.

Materials

Printed passage strip: Lady Di sent out invitations
Pencils
Printed passage strip: On the edge of the meadow
Verb-swap log
Printed passage strip: Pandemonium broke out
Word cards: rushed, erected, bulged, pandemonium

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

10. First, Next, Then: Retelling How the Party Came Together Application · Retelling a sequence of events in order

The party is built one job at a time and the order is not decorative: invitations come before guests, guests come before rooms fill, and the surprise has to be rehearsed before the trumpet sounds. Students read three spans from different points in the story, put them in order using the story's own clue words, and retell the stretch aloud using first, next, then and finally. The retelling is of events, not of quantities.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Order the jobs in the opening (5 min)
Read this span aloud. With a partner, name the jobs in the order they happen and use the words first, next and then as you say them. The span gives you one clue word of its own — find 'Each day' and say what it tells you about how much time is passing.
Word preview: invitations
Lady Di sent out invitations. Servants rushed about the castle cleaning and cooking. Carpenters built long wooden tables while seamstresses sewed tents. Guests began arriving in groups. Each day, more kept coming. Lady Di showed the guests where to stay. Rooms filled up quickly.
2. Place a later event on the strip (5 min)
Read this span aloud. It starts with the words 'As everyone was finishing the last luncheon bites'. Tell your partner what that phrase proves about WHEN this happens compared with the span you just read. Write this event on a sequence strip card and lay it to the right of the opening.
Word preview: luncheon
As everyone was finishing the last luncheon bites, a cloud of dust appeared in the distance. More guests were coming. It was a huge group from the King City, Camelot.
3. Put the last two events in the right order (5 min)
Read both spans below aloud. One of them has to happen before the other or the surprise does not work. Say to your group which comes first and point at the words that prove it — the rehearsing, the trumpet, the arriving. Lay both on your sequence strip.
Word preview: rehearsed, grumpily
Lady Di passed out silk scarves to each person saying, the color of your scarf matches your tent flag. Then the entire group gathered to practice their surprise greeting for the king. They had rehearsed only once when a trumpet blared in the distance.
When the king arrived, he had a sour look on his face. He muttered grumpily.
4. Retell the whole stretch from your strip (5 min)
Retell the stretch of story on your sequence strip to a partner in four sentences, starting each one with first, next, then or finally. Your partner listens holding the four spans reprinted here and stops you if you put an event in the wrong place. Then swap.
Lady Di sent out invitations. Servants rushed about the castle cleaning and cooking. Carpenters built long wooden tables while seamstresses sewed tents. Guests began arriving in groups. Each day, more kept coming. Lady Di showed the guests where to stay. Rooms filled up quickly.
As everyone was finishing the last luncheon bites, a cloud of dust appeared in the distance. More guests were coming. It was a huge group from the King City, Camelot.
Lady Di passed out silk scarves to each person saying, the color of your scarf matches your tent flag. Then the entire group gathered to practice their surprise greeting for the king. They had rehearsed only once when a trumpet blared in the distance.
When the king arrived, he had a sour look on his face. He muttered grumpily.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Order the jobs in the opening (5 min)
Read this span aloud. Name the jobs in the order they happen, using first, next and then. Find 'Each day' and say what it tells you about time passing.
Word preview: invitations
Lady Di sent out invitations. Servants rushed about the castle cleaning and cooking. Carpenters built long wooden tables while seamstresses sewed tents. Guests began arriving in groups. Each day, more kept coming. Lady Di showed the guests where to stay. Rooms filled up quickly.
2. Retell the whole stretch from your strip (4 min)
Retell what you have on your sequence strip in three sentences beginning first, next and finally. Use the two spans reprinted here to check yourself.
Lady Di sent out invitations. Servants rushed about the castle cleaning and cooking. Carpenters built long wooden tables while seamstresses sewed tents. Guests began arriving in groups. Each day, more kept coming. Lady Di showed the guests where to stay. Rooms filled up quickly.
Lady Di passed out silk scarves to each person saying, the color of your scarf matches your tent flag. Then the entire group gathered to practice their surprise greeting for the king. They had rehearsed only once when a trumpet blared in the distance.

Three levels

Support: Support: retell only the opening span, three events long, and use just first, next and then. Keep the strip in front of you the whole time.
At Grade: At Grade: retell all four events in order and name the clue word that fixed each one in place.
Extension: Extension: retell the stretch backwards, starting with the king arriving and working back to the invitations, using the words before that each time. Say afterwards which direction was harder and why.

English learners

Time-order words transfer well as a set — most languages have a first/next/then chain — but English hides its order clues inside long phrases like 'As everyone was finishing the last luncheon bites', where the clue is the whole clause and not one word. Rehearse the frame 'This happens after ___ because it says ___.' A student who retells the order correctly in their strongest language has done the skill; the English words can be layered on top.

Materials

Printed passage strip: Lady Di sent out invitations
Sequence strip cards
Printed passage strip: As everyone was finishing
Printed passage strip: Lady Di passed out silk scarves
Printed passage strip: When the king arrived
Word cards: invitations, luncheon, rehearsed, grumpily

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

11. The King's Face: Reading a Feeling the Book Never Names Reasoning · Inferring how a character feels from what the text shows

The book never writes that the king is unhappy and it never writes that he is delighted. It gives a sour look, a grumpy mutter, a smile beginning, and a man standing to applaud. Students read two short spans, name the feeling in each, and are held to pointing at the exact words in the span that made them say it. The evidence they cite has to be words about a face, a voice or a body — never a number.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Name what the king's face is doing (5 min)
Read this span aloud. Say one word for how the king feels here. Then put your finger on the words in the span that made you pick that word and read them out. Nobody may keep a feeling word they cannot point at.
Word preview: sour, grumpily
When the king arrived, he had a sour look on his face. He muttered grumpily.
2. Watch the feeling change (5 min)
Read this span aloud. The king's face does something different now. Write the new feeling in the second column of your chart and beside it copy the exact words that show it. Tell your partner which single word in the span tells you the change is only starting and not finished.
Word preview: streamed
They streamed out of their tents singing and dancing. The king was surprised. His sour look began to turn into a smile.
3. Track the feeling to the end (5 min)
Read this span aloud. Add a third row to your chart. Standing and applauding is a body doing something, not a feeling word — say to your group what feeling you infer from it and why a person who felt nothing would stay seated.
Word preview: shimmering
At the end of their performance, everyone lifted and lowered their scarves one row after another, starting with the largest group of 9,000, then the 900, then the 90, and finally, the 9. It looked as if a shimmering ocean wave had crashed at the feet of the king. He stood and applauded.
4. Say the change in one sentence (5 min)
Using your chart and the three spans reprinted here, say one sentence to your group in this shape: 'The king starts out ___ and ends up ___, and I know because the book says ___.' The last blank has to be words you can find on the page in front of you.
When the king arrived, he had a sour look on his face. He muttered grumpily.
They streamed out of their tents singing and dancing. The king was surprised. His sour look began to turn into a smile.
At the end of their performance, everyone lifted and lowered their scarves one row after another, starting with the largest group of 9,000, then the 900, then the 90, and finally, the 9. It looked as if a shimmering ocean wave had crashed at the feet of the king. He stood and applauded.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Name what the king's face is doing (5 min)
Read this span aloud. Say one word for how the king feels, then point at the exact words that made you pick it and read them out.
Word preview: sour, grumpily
When the king arrived, he had a sour look on his face. He muttered grumpily.
2. Watch the feeling change (4 min)
Read this span aloud. Write the new feeling on your chart and copy the exact words that show it beside it.
Word preview: streamed
They streamed out of their tents singing and dancing. The king was surprised. His sour look began to turn into a smile.

Three levels

Support: Support: work the first two spans only and choose your feeling word from a pair the teacher offers — sad or happy, cross or pleased. Still point at the words that made you choose.
At Grade: At Grade: work all three spans and fill the chart with a feeling and its exact evidence in every row.
Extension: Extension: the book gives the king a sour look before he has seen anything. Argue to your group whether the book has told you WHY he is sour or has left you to guess, pointing at what the span does and does not say.

English learners

The feeling words here are figurative in English and do not travel: a sour look has nothing to do with taste in most languages, and grumpily is a manner adverb English builds with -ly where other languages use a whole phrase. Teach sour look and smile as pictures first, pointing at faces. Frame: 'He feels ___ because the book says ___.' A student may give the feeling word in their strongest language and the evidence in English; that counts.

Materials

Printed passage strip: When the king arrived
Feeling-and-evidence chart
Printed passage strip: They streamed out of their tents
Printed passage strip: At the end of their performance
Word cards: sour, grumpily, streamed, shimmering

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

12. It Looked As If: The One Comparison in the Whole Book Concept · Recognising a comparison made with like or as

One sentence in this story stops describing and starts comparing: scarves lifting and lowering in rows look as if an ocean wave had crashed. Students find the two things being compared, say what they have in common, and then test a second sentence to decide whether it compares or simply describes. The work is spotting and unpacking a comparison, and students are held to naming what the two things share.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Find the two things being compared (5 min)
Read this span aloud. The middle sentence compares one thing to another. Say to a partner what the first thing is and what it is being compared to. Then find the two little words that told you a comparison was coming.
Word preview: shimmering
At the end of their performance, everyone lifted and lowered their scarves one row after another, starting with the largest group of 9,000, then the 900, then the 90, and finally, the 9. It looked as if a shimmering ocean wave had crashed at the feet of the king. He stood and applauded.
2. Say what the two things share (5 min)
Fill in your T-chart: scarves on the left, ocean wave on the right. Underneath, write the one thing they both do. Say it aloud in a full sentence beginning 'They both...'. If you cannot name what they share, the comparison has not worked yet — read the span again and watch the rows.
At the end of their performance, everyone lifted and lowered their scarves one row after another, starting with the largest group of 9,000, then the 900, then the 90, and finally, the 9. It looked as if a shimmering ocean wave had crashed at the feet of the king. He stood and applauded.
3. Test a sentence that does not compare (5 min)
Read this span aloud. It sounds big too, but decide with your partner whether it compares one thing to another thing or just tells you what happened. Say which and say how you know, pointing at whether the little comparison words are there or not.
Word preview: enormous
After a tasty dinner, the cooks brought out an enormous birthday cake and other delicious sweets. The guests cheered as the king blew out the candles, then everyone heard the thunder of hoofbeats.
4. Build a comparison of your own (5 min)
Look at the wave sentence reprinted here one more time. Now finish this out loud for the tent scene: 'The crowded tent looked as if ___.' Your ending must name a thing a person could picture, and you have to say what your thing and the tent share.
Word preview: bulged
At the end of their performance, everyone lifted and lowered their scarves one row after another, starting with the largest group of 9,000, then the 900, then the 90, and finally, the 9. It looked as if a shimmering ocean wave had crashed at the feet of the king. He stood and applauded.
On the edge of the meadow, the castle workers erected a small tent. Immediately, knights, ladies, and villagers rushed inside. It bulged dangerously.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Find the two things being compared (5 min)
Read this span aloud. Say what is being compared to what, and find the two little words that signalled the comparison.
Word preview: shimmering
At the end of their performance, everyone lifted and lowered their scarves one row after another, starting with the largest group of 9,000, then the 900, then the 90, and finally, the 9. It looked as if a shimmering ocean wave had crashed at the feet of the king. He stood and applauded.
2. Say what the two things share (4 min)
Fill your T-chart with scarves and ocean wave, then say aloud one full sentence beginning 'They both...'.
At the end of their performance, everyone lifted and lowered their scarves one row after another, starting with the largest group of 9,000, then the 900, then the 90, and finally, the 9. It looked as if a shimmering ocean wave had crashed at the feet of the king. He stood and applauded.

Three levels

Support: Support: stay with the wave sentence only. The teacher names the two things being compared and you say the one thing they share, using the words rows and rolling.
At Grade: At Grade: find the comparison yourself, name what is shared, and correctly rule the cake sentence out.
Extension: Extension: argue whether the wave comparison would still work if the scarves had all been lifted at the same moment instead of one row after another, pointing at the words in the span that make the rolling happen.

English learners

Comparison with as if exists in most languages, so the idea transfers even when the grammar does not — English packs it into two small words that are easy to miss when read aloud fast. Say the sentence slowly and stress as if. Frame: '___ looks as if ___ because they both ___.' Invite students to offer a comparison for the scarves from their strongest language; if it pictures something different from an ocean, that is worth hearing aloud.

Materials

Printed passage strip: At the end of their performance
Comparison T-chart
Printed passage strip: After a tasty dinner
Printed passage strip: On the edge of the meadow
Word cards: shimmering, enormous, bulged

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

13. The Next Time You: Where the Story Stops and the Author Turns to You Representation · Noticing when an author speaks straight to the reader

The last two sentences of this book are not part of the story at all. The story has characters and a past tense; the ending has the word you and an instruction. Students read a story span and the closing span side by side, sort the pronouns and tenses, and say what changed. The skill is noticing who a text is talking to and how you can tell.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Mark who the story is about (5 min)
Read this span aloud. Circle every word that names a person or stands in for one: they, each guest, the meadow. Say to a partner whether the book is talking ABOUT people or talking TO you here, and how you can tell.
Word preview: assigned
So they assigned each guest to a tent. The meadow became a nightly numbered neighborhood.
2. Mark who the ending is about (5 min)
Read this span aloud. Circle the word you every time it appears. Now say the same question to your partner: is the book talking about somebody or talking to you? Put both answers side by side on your chart.
Word preview: imagining, digit
The next time you see a big number, try imagining that the digits live in a number neighborhood. Each digit's place or tent is 10 times bigger than the one to its right.
3. Listen for the tense change (5 min)
Read both spans below aloud, one after the other. In the first, find the words that show it already happened. In the second, find the words that show it has not happened yet. Say to your group which span could be true tomorrow and which could not.
So they assigned each guest to a tent. The meadow became a nightly numbered neighborhood.
The next time you see a big number, try imagining that the digits live in a number neighborhood. Each digit's place or tent is 10 times bigger than the one to its right.
4. Rewrite the ending as story (5 min)
Take the closing span reprinted here and say it aloud again as if it were still the story, with Lady Di doing it instead of you. Then say which version belongs at the end of a story and which belongs at the end of a lesson, and why the author chose the one they did.
The next time you see a big number, try imagining that the digits live in a number neighborhood. Each digit's place or tent is 10 times bigger than the one to its right.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Mark who the ending is about (5 min)
Read this span aloud and circle the word you every time it appears. Say whether the book is talking about somebody or talking to you, and how you can tell.
Word preview: imagining, digit
The next time you see a big number, try imagining that the digits live in a number neighborhood. Each digit's place or tent is 10 times bigger than the one to its right.
2. Mark who the story is about (4 min)
Read this span aloud. Circle every word that names a person or stands in for one, and say what changed between this span and the ending.
Word preview: assigned
So they assigned each guest to a tent. The meadow became a nightly numbered neighborhood.

Three levels

Support: Support: work only the closing span and only the word you. Count how many times it appears and say who the author means by it.
At Grade: At Grade: sort both spans by who is being spoken to and name the tense clue in each.
Extension: Extension: argue whether the closing span is still part of the same book or a different kind of writing stapled on the end, using the pronouns and the tense as your evidence.

English learners

Direct address is common across languages, but English marks it almost invisibly, with one unstressed word: you. Read the closing span twice, stressing you both times, and have students raise a hand each time they hear it. Frame: 'The author is talking to ___ because the word ___ tells me.' A student who explains the shift in their strongest language and points at you in the English text has done the skill.

Materials

Printed passage strip: So they assigned each guest
Who-is-being-spoken-to chart
Printed passage strip: The next time you see a big number
Word cards: assigned, imagining, digit

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.