Too-Tall Tina

$Too-Tall Tina book cover$

Grade 1
5 skill lessons

Math

Skill lessons

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

1Taller Than Whom?
2Eight, Nine, Ten Steps to the Red Line
3Three Things in Every Row
4Too Short, or Long Enough?
5Long Steps, Fewer Steps

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.

No math-through-reading lessons for this book yet.

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.

No reading and language lessons for this book yet.

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

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

1. Taller Than Whom? Concept · Ordering three people by height and saying each comparison both ways

Tina's height never gets a number. No inch, no ruler, no mark on a doorframe appears anywhere in this book, and the whole story still turns on an ordering: she used to match her two friends, then she passed both of them, then she was the tallest child in her grade. Students do that ordering with their own bodies. Three children stand back to back, the group settles who goes where, and then every pair in the line is said twice from the same two children standing still: Rosa is taller than Sam, Sam is shorter than Rosa. The idea they leave with is that taller than is a word about a pair, so one child changes word when the partner changes, and only tallest needs the whole line to be true. The book supplies the proof itself, because Tina becomes as short as Luke by bending her knees without losing a hair of height.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Hear the three words (4 min)
Listen for the three words the book says on their own after Tina passes her friends, and hold up one finger, then two, then a whole hand as each one lands. Say the three back in the same order. Then say which of the three words needs only one other person and which one needs everybody.
Word preview: taller, tallest
Tall? Taller? Tallest.
I used to be as tall as my two best friends.
2. Stand three children in a line (6 min)
Three of you stand back to back with heels together and no shoes lifted, and the rest of the group puts you in order from shortest to tallest by sighting a flat card across two heads at a time. Move only one person per decision and say out loud which two you are looking at. Stop when nobody needs to move and say who ended up at each end.
Word preview: tallest, shortest
The lady who takes our picture always lines us up by how tall we are.
I'm the tallest kid in third grade.
3. Say each pair the other way (6 min)
Keep the three of you standing in the line you built. Point at two people at a time and say the sentence with taller than, then say the very same pair again with shorter than and the names swapped. Do all three pairs. Nobody moves while you talk, so the two sentences have to be about the same two heights.
Word preview: taller than, shorter than
Now I'm taller than Nancy.
I'm taller than Luke.
4. Squish down and say it again (4 min)
The tallest of the three bends both knees and tucks down until the pair looks level, the way Tina waddles over to Luke. Say the new sentence about that same pair. Then stand back up and say what actually changed and what did not, with a hand on your own head both times.
Word preview: as short as
Now I'm as short as you are, I tell him.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Stand three children in a line (5 min)
Three of you stand back to back with heels together, and the group puts you in order from shortest to tallest by sighting a flat card across two heads at a time. Say which two you are looking at before each move. Name who ended at each end.
Word preview: tallest, shortest
The lady who takes our picture always lines us up by how tall we are.
I'm the tallest kid in third grade.
2. Say each pair the other way (4 min)
Stay in the line you built. Point at two people and say the sentence with taller than, then say the same pair again with shorter than and the names swapped. Do all three pairs without anybody moving.
Word preview: taller than, shorter than
Now I'm taller than Nancy.
I'm taller than Luke.

Three levels

Support: Order two children rather than three, and let the child do the sighting while a partner holds the card. The pair is said once with taller than and once with shorter than, and the child may point at the taller head instead of naming who it belongs to. Keep the knee-bend part, because it is where the word changes without the height changing.
At Grade: Three children ordered by sighting two heads at a time, every one of the three pairs said both ways from a line that nobody moves during the talking, and the end of the line named with tallest.
Extension: Add a fourth child to the line and find the one place they belong by comparing against two people rather than everybody. Then argue what would have to be true for the middle child to be called both taller and shorter in the same breath, and show it with two different partners.

English learners

Taller than is one word in English and two jobs at once: it names an attribute and it orders a pair. Many languages carry the comparison in a separate marker or in the verb, so a child who orders the line perfectly may still not hear which English word did the ordering. The standing rescues this, because a line built correctly is the reading, whatever the child can say about it. Rehearse the frame ___ is taller than ___ before anybody speaks, and let a child point at the two heads and say only the two names if the full frame is not ready. Ask children to say taller and shorter in their strongest language and teach the class both words, and hear whether that language puts the work in a word, an ending, or the order of the two names.

Materials

The book read aloud
Three floor cards in a row reading tall, taller, tallest
A flat cardboard edge for sighting across two heads
Name cards for the three children who stand
Two sentence strips per group reading is taller than and is shorter than
A cushion on the floor so a child can drop to a partner's height
Word cards: taller than, shorter than, tallest

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.

2. Eight, Nine, Ten Steps to the Red Line Fluency · Counting the steps that measure one distance and comparing the counts

The giant steps race is the one place this book puts numbers on a measurement, and it puts three of them into two short sentences: ten, nine and eight, every one of them a count of steps to the same red line. Students measure a taped distance the same way, in their own steps, one number word per footfall and no number said in the air. Then they lay the book's three counts out in paper footprints, three lanes side by side, and find the lane that ran out soonest. What has to be fluent is counting a moving body: the mouth keeps pace with the feet, and the count stops where the line is, not where the counting rhythm wants to. The comparison at the end is made by matching footprints against footprints, so the two footprints left with no partner are touched and counted rather than worked out.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Walk the line and count out loud (6 min)
One of you walks from the start tape to the red tape while the partner counts every footfall out loud, one number word per foot down, and calls stop when the red tape is under a shoe. Say your count and write it in the first box on the card. Swap and do it again so both of you have a number of your own.
Word preview: steps, count
Whoever reaches the red line in the fewest number of steps wins a point
Then I take another and another all the way to the finish line.
2. Lay out the book's three counts (5 min)
Build the book's race in paper footprints. Put ten footprints heel to toe in the lane marked Anna, nine in the lane marked Mike, eight in the lane marked Tina, counting aloud as you place each one. All three lanes start at the same edge and every footprint is the same size.
Word preview: ten, nine, eight
Anna took ten steps.
Mike took nine, and Tina took eight.
3. Say who took the fewest (4 min)
Look along the three lanes and put the card reading fewest at the end of the lane that ran out first. Say the sentence out loud: Tina took the fewest steps. Then say the three counts in order from fewest to most, touching each lane as you say its number.
Word preview: fewest
It's me against Anna and Mike.
The orange team gets a point.
4. Match ten footprints against eight (5 min)
Slide Tina's lane up under Anna's so the two rows line up footprint above footprint from the same starting edge. Walk a finger down the two rows together until one row runs out. Put a counter on every footprint left over with nothing above or below it, and say how many counters you used.
Word preview: left over, match

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Lay out the book's three counts (5 min)
Build the book's race in footprints: ten in Anna's lane, nine in Mike's, eight in Tina's, counting aloud as you place each one. All three lanes start at the same edge and every footprint is one size.
Word preview: ten, nine, eight
Anna took ten steps.
Mike took nine, and Tina took eight.
2. Match ten footprints against eight (4 min)
Slide Tina's lane under Anna's so they line up from the same edge, and walk a finger down both rows until one runs out. Put a counter on every leftover footprint and say how many counters you used.
Word preview: left over, match

Three levels

Support: Use the two lanes of eight and ten only, and leave Mike's nine out. Place the footprints into pre-drawn outlines so the lanes cannot drift, and let the child count aloud while a partner places. The child says which lane ran out first and puts a counter on each leftover footprint; saying how many counters can wait until the counters are in a row.
At Grade: Three lanes built by counting aloud, the fewest named and the three counts said in order, then ten matched against eight footprint by footprint and the leftovers counted.
Extension: Walk the taped distance a second time with a different stride and predict, before counting, whether the new count will land above or below the first one. Then match the two of your own lanes the same way as the book's and say how many footprints separate them.

English learners

The counting words themselves usually transfer, and many children arrive counting fluently in another language. What is new is the English one-to-one rhythm laid over a moving body, and the word fewest, which sounds like a comparison and behaves like a smallest. Let a child count aloud in their strongest language while walking, then count the footprints again in English standing still, so the two counts can be heard against the same lane. Rehearse the frame ___ took ___ steps before the lanes are built, and accept a pointed finger and a number for the leftovers before the whole sentence arrives.

Materials

Two strips of floor tape, a start line and a red line about ten adult steps apart
A card per pair with three empty boxes for counts
Paper footprints, at least thirty per pair, all cut to one size
A mat with three labelled lanes reading Anna, Mike and Tina
A card reading fewest
Counters, five per pair
Word cards: steps, fewest, left over

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.

3. Three Things in Every Row Representation · Building rows of three objects ordered by one attribute and labelling each row

The book ends by handing a teacher its own arrangement: a chart with a row for each attribute and three words along it. Students build that chart out of objects before they read any of it as words. Three ribbons make the long row, ordered by laying them against each other with one end level; three strips of card make the wide row, ordered by setting them edge to edge. Each finished row gets its three labels put down in the order the hands made, and the middle label is the one worth arguing about, because the middle ribbon is only longer while its neighbour is in the row. The arrangement carries the mathematics here: a row of three with one end level is a claim anybody can check by looking along it, and the story printed six of these sets while the chart keeps four.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the chart's own words (4 min)
Look at the back of the book with the chart on it and read the twelve words along the rows. Clap once for each row you find, and say what all the rows have the same. Say which of the three words in a row you would put in the middle and why, before any objects come out.
Word preview: row, compare
Comparing measurements chart, you can use words to compare the three things in each row.
Long, longer, longest, short, shorter, shortest, high, higher, highest, wide, wider, widest.
2. Build the long row (6 min)
Take three ribbons of different lengths and lay them on the table with all three left ends touching one taped line, so the only thing that differs is where they finish. Slide them into order, shortest at the top. Put the three word cards long, longer and longest down the row beside them and read the row aloud.
Word preview: long, longer, longest
Long. Longer. Longest.
3. Build the wide row and the low row (5 min)
Do the same twice more. Three strips of card go edge to edge to make the wide row, and three towers of blocks stand side by side on the table to make the low row. Order each row by putting two next to each other at a time, and lay the three word cards beside each finished row.
Word preview: wide, widest, low
Low. Lower. Lowest.
4. Check a neighbour's rows (5 min)
Walk to another group's chart and look along each of their rows with one eye close to the level end. Say whether every row is in order and how you can tell without picking anything up. If two objects in a row look the same, put them side by side and settle it, then tell that group what you moved and why.
Word preview: in order, level
Far? Farther? Farthest.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Build the long row (5 min)
Lay three ribbons with all three left ends touching one taped line, so only the finishing ends differ, and slide them into order with the shortest at the top. Put the cards long, longer and longest beside the row and read it aloud.
Word preview: long, longer, longest
Long. Longer. Longest.
2. Build the wide row and the low row (4 min)
Do the same twice more: three card strips edge to edge for the wide row, three block towers side by side for the low row. Order each by comparing two at a time and lay the three word cards beside each row.
Word preview: wide, widest, low
Low. Lower. Lowest.

Three levels

Support: Build one row rather than three, the ribbon row, and give the child two ribbons first and the third to slot in. The taped line stays, because a level end is what makes the row readable. The child lays the three cards beside the finished row and reads it aloud, and may point to the longest instead of naming it.
At Grade: Three rows built with one end or edge levelled, each ordered by comparing two objects at a time, each labelled with its three words in the order the hands made, and a neighbour's chart checked by sighting along it.
Extension: Build a fifth row for an attribute the chart does not carry, choosing three objects and three words of your own, and defend the middle word by taking one neighbour out of the row and saying what happens to it. Then move one object from a finished row into another row and say which of its labels still holds.

English learners

The three-word set is a grammar pattern and it does not come free. English builds it with two endings, -er and -est, and languages that build it with a separate word or with a repeated adjective give a child no reason to hear a family in long, longer, longest. Say the three aloud as a set every time a row is finished so the endings are heard in a rhythm. The row itself carries the meaning without any of the words, so a child who orders three ribbons has already done the mathematics; the label comes second. Rehearse this one is the ___ before the cards go down, and ask children for the three words in their strongest language so the class hears where the comparison sits in each one.

Materials

The book open at the chart
A large empty grid on chart paper with four blank rows
Three ribbons per group of clearly different lengths
A taped line on the table to level one end against
Word cards long, longer, longest
Three card strips per group of clearly different widths
Blocks for three towers per group
Word cards wide, wider, widest and low, lower, lowest
A checking card reading is every row in order?
Word cards: longest, widest, row

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.

4. Too Short, or Long Enough? Application · Deciding whether a length is long enough for a job by direct comparison

The purple jump rope did not shrink. Tina grew, and the same rope that worked all last year is now too short for her, which is the book saying plainly that too short is never a fact about a rope on its own. Students take that to a table of real lengths and settle three or four ropes against one jumper by trying them, not by guessing: swing it, and either it clears the head and passes under the feet or it does not. Then the same ropes are tried against a taller jumper and the piles have to be rebuilt, which is the point of the lesson arriving in the children's hands rather than from anybody's mouth. The book closes the case for them at the end, when the only arms in the class that reach the ball in the tree are the long ones.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Hear why the rope stopped working (4 min)
Listen for the two sentences about the purple rope: what went wrong, and what Luke says would fix it. Put a hand flat and low for the rope and a hand high for Tina's head, and show with the gap between them what too short means here. Say who changed, the rope or the girl.
Word preview: too short, longer
My favorite jump rope is too short for me.
You just need a longer rope.
2. Try three ropes on one jumper (6 min)
One of you stands still holding the rope handles at hip height while the other checks whether the rope reaches over that jumper's head and touches the floor at the same time. Try all three ropes on the same jumper and say long enough or too short out loud for each. When a rope is too short, put a finger on the gap.
Word preview: long enough, too short
Short. Shorter. Shortest.
3. Sort every rope into two piles (5 min)
Put each rope into the pile its trial earned, then change jumpers to the tallest person in the group and try the same three ropes again. Move any rope that has to move, and say out loud which pile it came from and which pile it is going to. Count how many ropes ended up in each pile for each jumper.
Word preview: long enough, moved
On Thursday I find a long jump rope with red sparkly handles.
4. Reach for the ball (5 min)
Tape a soft ball high on the wall, just out of most reaches, and take turns standing flat-footed with one arm up to find out who can touch it. Sort yourselves into reached and did not reach, then say what would have to change for somebody in the second group to move across, naming a thing that is long enough.
Word preview: reach, long enough
Lots of kids try to reach it, but only my arms are long enough.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Try three ropes on one jumper (5 min)
One of you holds the rope handles at hip height and stands still while the other checks whether it reaches over that jumper's head and touches the floor. Try all three ropes on the same jumper, saying long enough or too short for each, and point at the gap when there is one.
Word preview: long enough, too short
Short. Shorter. Shortest.
2. Sort every rope into two piles (4 min)
Put each rope in the pile its trial earned, then change to the tallest jumper in the group and try all three again. Move whatever has to move and say where it came from and where it is going.
Word preview: long enough, moved
On Thursday I find a long jump rope with red sparkly handles.

Three levels

Support: Try two ropes rather than three, one clearly too short and one clearly long enough, on one jumper only. The child does the trial and says long enough or too short, and may point at the gap instead of describing it. Keep the jumper change, using the teacher as the taller jumper, so the child sees one rope move piles.
At Grade: Three ropes tried on two jumpers of different heights, every trial spoken as long enough or too short, and the ropes that changed piles named and counted.
Extension: Order the three ropes from shortest to longest without a jumper in the picture, then predict for a jumper you have not tried which ropes will pass, and say what about that jumper you had to use to decide. Then find the shortest rope in the room that is still long enough for the tallest jumper.

English learners

Too and enough are the hard words and neither is a length. Too short means shorter than something needs, and enough hides the thing being compared against, so a child may hear a claim about the rope where the book makes a claim about a pair. Many languages mark this with a word order or a case ending that English drops entirely. The trial is the rescue: the rope either clears the head or it does not, and every child can see which. Rehearse both frames, this rope is too short for ___ and this rope is long enough for ___, and insist on the for and the name, because that is where the second half of the comparison lives. Invite the words for too and enough in a child's strongest language and ask what they attach to there.

Materials

The book read aloud
A short skipping rope to hold up
Three skipping ropes of clearly different lengths per group
Two floor labels reading long enough and too short
A tally card per group with two columns, one per jumper
A soft ball and tape to fix it to the wall above most children's reach
Word cards: too short, long enough, longer

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.

5. Long Steps, Fewer Steps Reasoning · Reasoning about why longer steps give a smaller count over one distance

Tina wins the giant steps race by stretching, and the book says so in her own voice, but it never says why stretching helps. Students settle that themselves on one taped distance walked twice: once in the smallest steps they can take, once in the biggest, counting aloud both times and keeping both numbers. Two counts of the same distance, one large and one small, is the whole argument, and the children own both halves of it because their own feet made them. What they have to justify is not which number is bigger but why the bigger number came from the smaller step, and the justification is available to a six-year-old with a strip of tape: more steps fit in when each step covers less. The book supplies the case and the numbers; the rule is the children's and they are asked to test it once before they trust it.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Walk the same line with tiny steps (6 min)
Walk from the start tape to the red tape in the smallest steps you can manage, heel touching toe every time, while your partner counts aloud and writes the number down. Do not hurry and do not skip the last part of the line. Say your number out loud when you stop.
Word preview: tiny steps, count
I stretch my legs as far as I can and take a long step.
2. Walk it again with giant steps (5 min)
Walk the very same line again, this time stretching each step as far as your legs go, the way the book's good things list says a tall person can. Your partner counts aloud again and writes the second number. Nothing about the line changes between the two walks, and you both check that the tape has not moved.
Word preview: giant steps, stretch
You can take giant, giant steps.
3. Put the two counts side by side (5 min)
Read your two numbers out loud, tiny steps first. Say which walk needed more steps and hold your hands apart to show how big one step was in each walk. Then say the sentence that ties the two together: the smaller my step, the more steps I needed to get there.
Word preview: more, fewer
Long. Longer. Longest.
4. Test the rule once (4 min)
Ask a partner to guess, before walking, whether an in-between step will need a count above or below both of yours, or in the middle. Then walk it and count. Say whether the guess held, and use the book's own three counts of ten, nine and eight to say whose step must have been the longest that day.
Word preview: guess, in between
Mike took nine, and Tina took eight.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Walk the same line with tiny steps (5 min)
Walk the line from the start tape to the red tape in the smallest steps you can manage, heel to toe, while your partner counts aloud and writes the number. Say your number when you stop.
Word preview: tiny steps, count
I stretch my legs as far as I can and take a long step.
2. Put the two counts side by side (4 min)
Read your two numbers out loud, tiny steps first, and say which walk needed more steps. Hold your hands apart to show one step from each walk, then say the sentence that ties them together.
Word preview: more, fewer
Long. Longer. Longest.

Three levels

Support: Walk half the line rather than all of it, so the tiny-step count stays inside ten, and let the teacher count aloud with the child. The child says which walk needed more steps while both counts sit on the card in front of them, and may show the two step sizes with their hands instead of saying the rule.
At Grade: Both walks counted on one unchanged line, both numbers said aloud, the bigger count named and tied to the smaller step in the child's own sentence.
Extension: Predict the giant-step count from the tiny-step count before walking, then walk and say how far off the prediction was. Then argue, from the book's ten, nine and eight, what a fourth racer's count would have to be for their step to be longer than Tina's, and say why no count of ten could do it.

English learners

The reasoning here runs against a habit that crosses every language: bigger thing, bigger number. A child may say the rule correctly in one language and still write the larger count next to the larger step, so the two lanes of their own footprints are what settles it rather than the words. Rehearse the frame the smaller my step, the more steps I need before either walk, and let a child say it with hands wide and narrow before saying it with words. Invite the pair of number words for more and fewer in a child's strongest language and put both cards up, because English uses fewer for things you count and children hear less far more often.

Materials

Two strips of floor tape, a start line and a red line about ten adult steps apart
A recording card per pair with two boxes reading tiny steps and giant steps
Two number cards per pair to write the two counts on
A card reading my guess with room for a number
Word cards: longer, fewer, the same line

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.