Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland

$Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland book cover$

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

Math

Skill lessons

The mathematics the book carries, taught directly. Each lesson has printable workbook pages and a separate teacher key.

1Smaller Than the Right Angle, Larger Than the Right Angle
2Make the Medallion, Read the Angle
3Too Big, Too Small, Almost Right
4Measure the Turn, Choose the Door
5Double the Right Angle

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.

6Change One Word, Change the Angle
7The Corridor the Book Never Measures
8Twice the Right Angle, Half the Straight Angle

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.

9Sir Cumference: How an Author Cuts a Word to Make a Name
10Foe and Go: How the Warning on the Door Is Built to Be Heard
11He Is Not Old Enough: Reading Four People Who Want Four Things
12Unseen Things Scuttled: How the Maze Is Made Frightening
13But How Did You Do It: Retelling What Happened, In Order

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Skill lessons

5 lessons on the mathematics the book carries. Each lesson has printable workbook pages and a separate teacher key.

1. Smaller Than the Right Angle, Larger Than the Right Angle Concept · Classifying angles as smaller than, equal to, or larger than a right angle

The story hands over four exact measures and one benchmark: the hallway that measured only 55, the one that measured 120, the smallest tunnel angle at 40, and the right angle at 90 that Radius keeps testing everything against. Students make their own right-angle corner by folding a circle in quarters, lay it into angle cards drawn at the book's four measures, and sort every card into smaller-than-ninety and larger-than-ninety.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Fold the right angle (4 min)
Fold your paper circle in half, then in half again, and open it: the corner where the two creases meet is a right angle. Press that corner into the corner of your table and into the corner of a book so you feel where it fits exactly and where it does not. Keep the folded circle beside you, because it is the corner every angle card gets tested against.
Word preview: right angle
A right angle measures 90 degrees.
It formed a perfect corner.
2. Read the three hallway measures (6 min)
Lay your folded corner into each angle card so one straight edge of the fold sits on one edge of the card and the points touch. Say whether the card opens narrower than your corner, exactly the same, or wider, then read the number printed on the card aloud. Write the three numbers Radius read underground beside the words narrower, same and wider.
Word preview: degrees
the angle of the first hallway measured only 55 on the medallion.
One angle measured 120 on the medallion.
The smallest angle measured 40, so he turned there.
3. Sort against ninety (6 min)
Put every angle card onto one of the two mats: smaller than a right angle, or larger than a right angle. Before a card leaves your hand, say the number on the card and then the number ninety, in that order. When both mats are full, count what landed on each and hold your mats up beside the pair next to you to settle any card you disagree about.
Word preview: right angle
As Radius measured the angle of each hallway, he found only one that was bigger than a right angle.
4. Say the sorting rule (4 min)
Tell your partner the one rule that sorted every card, and make sure the number ninety is in your sentence. Write that rule on your recording strip and circle the two words that decide which mat a card goes to. Read your rule to another pair and fix it if one of their cards breaks it.
Word preview: degrees
Something less than 90 on the medallion.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read the three hallway measures (6 min)
Lay your folded corner into each angle card, points touching, one edge on one edge. Say narrower, same or wider, then read the card's number aloud.
Word preview: degrees
the angle of the first hallway measured only 55 on the medallion.
One angle measured 120 on the medallion.
The smallest angle measured 40, so he turned there.
2. Sort against ninety (3 min)
Sort the cards onto the two mats. Say the card's number and then ninety before it leaves your hand.
Word preview: right angle
As Radius measured the angle of each hallway, he found only one that was bigger than a right angle.

Three levels

Support: Sort every card yourself and test every one with your folded corner; none of the measuring changes. When you say the rule, read from the frame strip: ___ degrees is ___ than 90 degrees, so it goes on the ___ mat. Fill the three blanks aloud for four cards before you write anything.
At Grade: Fold the corner, test all four cards against it, sort them onto the two mats saying each number against ninety, then state and write the sorting rule in one sentence containing ninety.
Extension: Order all four cards by how far each one sits from ninety and back your order with a subtraction for every card. Then find the card that would change mats if its number moved by one degree, and say which direction that one degree would have to go.

English learners

The English comparative is the load — the -er ending, the word than that has to follow it, and the fact that smaller than and less than do the same job here. Model one frame until it runs without thinking: 90 degrees is smaller than 120 degrees. Students may decide the sort in their own language first and say the frame in English once the card has landed on a mat.

Materials

Paper circles, one per student
Angle cards labeled 40, 55, 90 and 120 degrees, one set per pair
Two sorting mats, one labeled SMALLER THAN A RIGHT ANGLE and one labeled LARGER THAN A RIGHT ANGLE, one set per pair
Recording strips, one per student
Pencils
Word cards: degrees, right angle

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Fold Circle, Angle Cards and Recording Strips card set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Smaller Than the Right Angle, Larger Than the Right Angle

Cut-out sheet: fold circle, angle cards, recording strips

Cut out the circle, the four angle cards and the two recording strips.

Fold circle

Fold it in half, then in half again, then open it.

Angle cards

Recording strips

Write the one rule that sorted every card. Circle the two words that decide the mat.

My sorting rule: ____________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

My sorting rule: ____________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

Two Sorting Mats and Word Cards full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Smaller Than the Right Angle, Larger Than the Right Angle

Two sorting mats

Put every angle card on one of the two mats.

Word cards

Cut on each line.

degrees

right angle

Frame Strips: One Card, One Sentence Support strip set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Smaller Than the Right Angle, Larger Than the Right Angle

Frame strips — Support

Say the frame out loud for four cards. Fill the three blanks each time.

____________ degrees is ____________ than 90 degrees, so it goes on the ____________ mat.

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: Angle Cards, Mats and the Sorting Rule full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Smaller Than the Right Angle, Larger Than the Right Angle — Teacher Key

The four angle cards against the folded corner

40 degrees — narrower than the folded corner
55 degrees — narrower than the folded corner
90 degrees — the same as the folded corner
120 degrees — wider than the folded corner

The two mats

SMALLER THAN A RIGHT ANGLE holds 40 and 55. LARGER THAN A RIGHT ANGLE holds 120. The 90 card matches the corner exactly, which is the middle word, same, that step 2 already gave them; expect pairs to hold it up and argue about it, and expect that argument rather than a settled placement.

The sorting rule

There is no single wording. A strong rule contains ninety and one comparison word for each mat, for example: a card smaller than 90 degrees goes on the smaller mat and a card larger than 90 degrees goes on the larger mat. The two words circled are the comparison pair the student used, smaller and larger, or less and more.

Read for

A close rule names ninety as the thing every card is compared against, and works on a card the student has not seen. A loose rule lists the cards it sorted (40 and 55 go here, 120 goes there) or leaves ninety out altogether (small ones here, big ones there); that rule breaks the moment another pair hands over a card, which is what the last step asks students to test.

Support and Extension

Support fills the frame strip aloud for four cards before writing. Extension writes a subtraction for every card on the same recording strip and orders the cards by distance from ninety: 90 minus 55 is 35, 120 minus 90 is 30, 90 minus 40 is 50, and the 90 card is 0 away. The card that changes mats if its number moves one degree is 90; expect students to say it must move down to 89 for the smaller mat or up to 91 for the larger.

Standards & curriculum

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

2. Make the Medallion, Read the Angle Representation · Measuring an angle in whole degrees with a circular scale

Radius carries a circle with numbers around its edge, and the book shows him using it exactly the way a protractor is used: center on the vertex, zero on one ray, read where the second ray crosses. Students number a blank circular scale themselves, then measure four drawn openings and check a partner's numbers.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Number the medallion (5 min)
Start at the tick mark on the right edge of your paper circle and write zero on it. Move around the circle writing ten, twenty, thirty on the ticks until you come back to zero. Check with your partner that ninety landed a quarter of the way round and one hundred eighty landed exactly opposite zero.
Word preview: center
What are these numbers around the edge of the medallion?
the numbers divide a circle into 360 parts.
2. Line up zero and read (6 min)
Set the center of your medallion exactly on the dot where the two rays meet, then turn the medallion until zero lies along the lower ray. Follow the other ray out to the edge and read the number it crosses; that number is the measure in degrees. Do the three moves in the same order every single time and say them while your hands do them: center, zero, read.
Word preview: degrees
Starting at zero on my medallion, if I go to the center and then to the number 90, that forms a right angle.
3. Measure four openings (5 min)
Measure all four hallway diagrams and write each measure in degrees on your strip. When a ray is too short to reach the edge of the medallion, lay your pencil along the ray and read where the pencil crosses. Do not write a measure you could not line up.
Word preview: center
If I hold the medallion over a circle, then the number measures the angle to the hallway.
4. Check a partner's measures (4 min)
Trade strips and measure your partner's four diagrams yourself. Wherever your two numbers differ by more than five degrees, put both medallions on that diagram at once and find whether the center slipped or zero slipped. Say out loud which of the three moves went wrong before you change a number.
Word preview: degrees
He carefully lined up the medallion and read the numbers.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Line up zero and read (6 min)
Center of the medallion on the dot, zero along the lower ray, then read where the second ray crosses. Say the three moves as you make them: center, zero, read.
Word preview: degrees
Starting at zero on my medallion, if I go to the center and then to the number 90, that forms a right angle.
2. Measure four openings (3 min)
Measure the four hallway diagrams and write each one in degrees. Lay your pencil along a short ray to reach the edge.
Word preview: center
If I hold the medallion over a circle, then the number measures the angle to the hallway.

Three levels

Support: Use the medallion that already carries its numbers, and start every diagram with zero already lined up on the lower ray. Your job is the third move on its own: follow the second ray to the edge and read the number it crosses. Measure all four diagrams, because the reading is the part being practiced.
At Grade: Number a blank scale, measure four drawn openings with center-zero-read, record each in degrees, then remeasure a partner's four and name which move slipped wherever the numbers disagree.
Extension: Measure one opening drawn with very short rays and the same opening drawn with long rays, and show that the two measures match. Then say why making a ray longer cannot change the number the medallion reads.

English learners

The prepositions are what carry them — on the center, along the ray, at the edge — and that is where the instruction breaks down, never the tool. Walk through the three-word chant while the hands do it, then the fuller frame: the second ray crosses 120, so the angle measures 120 degrees. Students may talk the moves through in their everyday language while measuring and report the number in English.

Materials

Paper circle medallions printed with tick marks every ten degrees and no numbers, one per student
Pencils
Junction cards showing two rays meeting at a marked center, one set per pair
Hallway diagrams drawn at 40, 55, 120 and 180 degrees, one set per pair
Recording strips, one per student
Word cards: center, degrees

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Blank Medallion, Recording Strip and Word Cards full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Make the Medallion, Read the Angle

Blank medallion, recording strip and word cards

Cut out the medallion. Start at the tick on the right edge and write zero on it.

Recording strip

Write the measure in degrees for each hallway diagram.

A ____________ degrees

B ____________ degrees

C ____________ degrees

D ____________ degrees

A ____________ degrees

B ____________ degrees

C ____________ degrees

D ____________ degrees

Word cards

center

degrees

Junction Cards and the Four Hallway Diagrams card set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Make the Medallion, Read the Angle

Junction cards and hallway diagrams

Center on the dot, zero along the lower ray, then read where the other ray crosses.

Junction cards

Hallway diagrams

Numbered Medallion and Diagrams with Zero Already in Place Support full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Make the Medallion, Read the Angle

Numbered medallion and the four diagrams — Support

Zero is already on the lower ray of every diagram. Follow the other ray out and read the number.

A ____________ degrees

B ____________ degrees

C ____________ degrees

D ____________ degrees

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: Numbering the Medallion and the Four Measures full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Make the Medallion, Read the Angle — Teacher Key

The four hallway diagrams

A — 55 degrees
B — 120 degrees
C — 40 degrees
D — 180 degrees

These are the four measures the lesson names. A and C fall between ticks on a scale marked every ten degrees, so 50 to 60 for A and a reading right on the tick for C.

The three junction cards

Junction card 1 is 90 degrees, card 2 is 60 degrees, card 3 is 130 degrees. These cards are for practising center, zero, read; no measure for them is stated in the lesson, so accept a reading within five degrees.

Numbering the blank medallion

Zero sits on the tick at the right edge and the numbers run around the circle by tens. The two checks the step names: ninety lands a quarter of the way round from zero, and one hundred eighty lands exactly opposite zero. A medallion numbered the other way round the circle still passes both checks and still measures correctly; do not correct it.

Read for

A close measure comes with the three moves in order and lands within five degrees, which is the tolerance the last step sets. A loose measure is usually one of two slips, and the step asks the student to name which: the center slipped off the dot, or zero slipped off the lower ray. A reading that is out by exactly the amount the medallion is turned is a zero slip; a reading that wanders when the medallion is nudged is a center slip.

Extension

The same opening drawn with short rays and with long rays measures the same, because the medallion reads where a ray crosses the edge of the circle and lengthening a ray does not move that crossing point.

Standards & curriculum

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

3. Too Big, Too Small, Almost Right Fluency · Subtracting whole-degree measures within 100 to find the distance from ninety

A careless reading comes first and then a careful one: Radius hurries, then slows down and gets 93, 85 and 89, calling them too big, too small and almost right. Those three numbers and the benchmark ninety are the whole lesson. Students find each gap by subtraction, then run a timed round on a deck of measures from 40 to 140, saying how far each sits from ninety and on which side.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the three careful measures (4 min)
Read aloud the three numbers Radius got when he stopped and measured a second time. Put each card on the number line strip where it belongs between eighty and one hundred. Before anyone picks up a pencil, say which card sits closest to ninety.
Word preview: difference
The first angle was 93.
The next angle was 85.
The third one was 89.
2. Find the gap from ninety (5 min)
Write a subtraction for each card that ends at ninety: 93 minus 90, 90 minus 85, 90 minus 89. Say every answer as a number of degrees, not as a bare number. Then check that the largest gap belongs to the card Radius called too small.
Word preview: closer
A right angle measures 90 degrees.
Too small, he muttered.
3. Run the gap round (7 min)
Turn a card, say how far its measure sits from ninety and whether it is above or below, then turn the next one. Your partner keeps a tally mark for every card that needed a second try. Go through the deck twice, and start the second pass with the cards that got a tally mark.
Word preview: difference
Fingers fumbling, he measured quickly with the medallion.
4. Order by closeness (4 min)
Put the three book cards in order from closest to ninety out to farthest, saying the gap for each one as you place it. Then say Radius's own three words in that same order. Check that the card he called too small ended up farthest from ninety.
Word preview: closer
Almost right, he said.
Too big, he said.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Find the gap from ninety (5 min)
Write the three subtractions that end at ninety and say each answer in degrees. Check that the biggest gap belongs to the card Radius called too small.
Word preview: closer
A right angle measures 90 degrees.
Too small, he muttered.
2. Run the gap round (4 min)
Turn a card, say the gap from ninety and whether it is above or below. Your partner tallies every card that took a second try.
Word preview: difference
Fingers fumbling, he measured quickly with the medallion.

Three levels

Support: Stay with the three book cards, 93, 85 and 89, and count each gap in ones along the number line strip, touching every mark from the card's number to ninety. Say the gap aloud as degrees. Join the gap round only after all three gaps are right, and take the deck one card at a time with no timing.
At Grade: Place the three measures on the number line, write the three subtractions from ninety, run the deck of measures from 40 to 140 twice saying each gap and its direction, then order the three book cards by closeness.
Extension: Hand your partner a gap and a direction — six degrees below ninety — and have them name the measure. Swap roles, then check each other by writing the same fact as two subtractions and saying what the two have in common.

English learners

English asks a child to say how far one number sits from another and to hang above or below on the end, and the book says too big and too small for the same relation it also states in numbers. Run one sentence: 85 is five degrees below 90. Let students count the gap and say it in their family language during the round, then give the English sentence for every card that got a tally mark.

Materials

Measure cards showing 93, 85 and 89, one set per pair
Number line strips marked from 80 to 100 in ones, one per pair
Recording strips, one per student
Pencils
Gap round cards showing whole-degree measures from 40 to 140, one deck per pair
Tally strips, one per pair
Word cards: closer, difference

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

The Three Measure Cards and the Number Line Strip card set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Too Big, Too Small, Almost Right

Measure cards and number line strip

Cut out the three cards. Put each one on the strip where it belongs.

Number line strips

Gap Round Deck and Tally Strips card set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Too Big, Too Small, Almost Right

Gap round deck and tally strips

Cut out the sixteen cards and the two tally strips.

Tally strips

One tally mark for every card that needed a second try.

Recording Strip: Three Subtractions, and Word Cards strip set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Too Big, Too Small, Almost Right

Recording strip and word cards

Write one subtraction for each card that ends at ninety. Say each answer in degrees.

Card 93: ____________________________________________

Card 85: ____________________________________________

Card 89: ____________________________________________

Card 93: ____________________________________________

Card 85: ____________________________________________

Card 89: ____________________________________________

Word cards

closer

difference

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: The Gaps from Ninety full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Too Big, Too Small, Almost Right — Teacher Key

The three subtractions

93 minus 90 is 3 degrees
90 minus 85 is 5 degrees
90 minus 89 is 1 degree

The largest gap, 5 degrees, belongs to 85, the card the book calls too small, which is the check the step asks students to make.

Order by closeness, and the book's three words in that order

89 (1 degree), then 93 (3 degrees), then 85 (5 degrees). The words in that same order are: Almost right, Too big, Too small.

The gap round deck

40 — 50 below ninety
45 — 45 below ninety
55 — 35 below ninety
62 — 28 below ninety
70 — 20 below ninety
78 — 12 below ninety
84 — 6 below ninety
87 — 3 below ninety
91 — 1 above ninety
95 — 5 above ninety
100 — 10 above ninety
108 — 18 above ninety
115 — 25 above ninety
122 — 32 above ninety
133 — 43 above ninety
140 — 50 above ninety

Read for

A close answer gives the gap and the side in one breath, five degrees below ninety, and says degrees rather than a bare number. A loose answer gives the gap without the side, or gives the card's own number back (eighty-five) instead of the distance. The second pass starts with the tallied cards, so a card that took a second try the first time and comes back clean is the point of the round, not a failure.

Extension

Given a gap and a direction, six degrees below ninety, the measure is 84. The same fact written as two subtractions is 90 minus 6 is 84 and 90 minus 84 is 6; what they have in common is ninety and the six, standing once as the answer and once as the amount taken away.

Standards & curriculum

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

4. Measure the Turn, Choose the Door Application · Choosing an angle that satisfies a stated condition by measuring

The parchment gives Radius words and the medallion gives him numbers, and every door in the labyrinth is chosen by matching one to the other: the big one measured 120, the slight one measured 40, the straight crossing is 180. Students work a junction map, measure all four openings at each junction, then pick the opening their route word names and defend the pick with both numbers in the sentence.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the route words (4 min)
Read the parchment's route words off your strip in order: right, big, straight, slight, right. For each word say the number test it sets — equal to ninety, more than ninety, one hundred eighty, less than ninety. Say the whole list once more with the strip turned face down.
Word preview: straight angle
After big, the parchment reads straight.
The parchment says, a slight angle.
Find the right to reach the king, or you will feel the dragons sting.
2. Measure every opening at the junction (6 min)
At each junction on the map, measure all four openings with your medallion and write the measure in degrees beside each one. Measure every opening, including the ones you are already sure about. A junction is not finished until four numbers are written on it.
Word preview: slight
Ahead, Radius saw several hallways, each had a circle carved in front of it.
In front of each was a carved circle glowing with its own light.
3. Choose the door and say why (6 min)
Take the junction's route word and pick the one opening whose measure passes its test. Say the sentence to your partner with both numbers in it: 120 degrees is more than 90 degrees, so this is the big one. Your partner rechecks that measure before you draw the arrow.
Word preview: straight angle
One angle measured 120 on the medallion.
The smallest angle measured 40, so he turned there.
4. Walk the whole route (4 min)
Read your four arrows in order as one route, saying the word and the measure together at every turn. If the route reaches the door at the end of the map, read it once for the class. If it does not, go back to the junction where your measure and your partner's disagreed.
Word preview: slight
My medallion helped me figure out which paths to take.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Measure every opening at the junction (6 min)
Measure all four openings at each junction and write each measure in degrees beside it. Four numbers on a junction before you choose anything.
Word preview: slight
Ahead, Radius saw several hallways, each had a circle carved in front of it.
In front of each was a carved circle glowing with its own light.
2. Choose the door and say why (3 min)
Pick the opening whose measure passes the route word's test and say the sentence with both numbers in it.
Word preview: straight angle
One angle measured 120 on the medallion.
The smallest angle measured 40, so he turned there.

Three levels

Support: Work from the map that already has the route word written beside each junction with its number test underneath — equal to 90, more than 90, less than 90, 180. You still measure all four openings yourself and still choose the door yourself; only the reading of the parchment is done for you.
At Grade: Read the five route words and their number tests, measure all four openings at each junction, choose the door each word names while saying both numbers in the sentence, then read the finished route in order.
Extension: Build a junction of your own where two of the four openings both pass the word big, measuring both to prove it. Then say what one extra word the parchment would need so that only one of your two openings survives the test.

English learners

Measuring and comparing carry over unchanged. The route words are the hard part: big, straight and slight are ordinary English words doing exact numeric work in this book, and slight will be new to most students in any case. Post the words with their number tests and rehearse the sentence: 40 degrees is less than 90 degrees, so it is the slight one. Students may talk a junction through with a partner in their strongest language before they say the sentence in English.

Materials

Route word strips reading right, big, straight, slight, right, one per pair
Junction maps with four openings drawn at each junction, one set per pair
Paper circle medallions printed with a scale numbered to 360, one per student
Recording strips, one per student
Pencils
Word cards: slight, straight angle

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Junction Maps: Four Openings at Every Junction full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Measure the Turn, Choose the Door

Junction maps

Put the center of your medallion on the dot and zero along the base ray.

Measure all four openings and write each measure in degrees on its line.

Junction 1

Junction 2

Junction 3

Junction 4

Junction 5

Numbered Medallion, Route Word Strips and Word Cards card set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Measure the Turn, Choose the Door

Numbered medallion, route word strip and word cards

Cut out the medallion and the route word strips.

Route word strip

right
big
straight
slight
right

Route word strip

right
big
straight
slight
right

Word cards

slight

straight angle

Junction Maps with the Route Word and Its Number Test Support full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Measure the Turn, Choose the Door

Junction maps with the route word already written — Support

The word and its number test are written for you. Measure all four openings yourself.

Then choose the door the word names.

Junction 1 — right

equal to 90 degrees

Junction 2 — big

more than 90 degrees

Junction 3 — straight

180 degrees

Junction 4 — slight

less than 90 degrees

Junction 5 — right

equal to 90 degrees

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: The Junction Measures and the Doors full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Measure the Turn, Choose the Door — Teacher Key

Every opening, junction by junction

Junction 1 — A is 50 degrees, B is 90 degrees, C is 130 degrees, D is 160 degrees. The word is right (equal to 90 degrees), so the door is B at 90 degrees.
Junction 2 — A is 30 degrees, B is 70 degrees, C is 90 degrees, D is 120 degrees. The word is big (more than 90 degrees), so the door is D at 120 degrees.
Junction 3 — A is 50 degrees, B is 80 degrees, C is 140 degrees, D is 180 degrees. The word is straight (180 degrees), so the door is D at 180 degrees.
Junction 4 — A is 40 degrees, B is 110 degrees, C is 150 degrees, D is 180 degrees. The word is slight (less than 90 degrees), so the door is A at 40 degrees.
Junction 5 — A is 60 degrees, B is 90 degrees, C is 110 degrees, D is 170 degrees. The word is right (equal to 90 degrees), so the door is B at 90 degrees.

The route

Reading the route words in order, the doors are B, D, D, A, B. Every opening is drawn at a multiple of ten degrees, so a correct measure lands on a tick of the medallion.

Read for

A close answer carries both numbers in one sentence, the way the step models it: 120 degrees is more than 90 degrees, so this is the big one. A loose answer names the door by how it looks, the widest one or the flat one, with no number in the sentence, and it is exactly what the partner is asked to catch before the arrow is drawn. Also read for whether all four openings at a junction have a number written beside them; the step says a junction is not finished until four numbers are on it, and a pair that measured only the one they liked will have three blanks.

Extension

A junction where two openings both pass big has two measures over ninety, for example 110 and 150. One extra word on the parchment that cuts it back to one door is any word that ranks or bounds them, the bigger of the two, or less than 120; a strong answer says which of the two openings survives its own word and why.

Standards & curriculum

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

5. Double the Right Angle Reasoning · Joining two right angles to make a straight angle

Sir Degrees calls out one instruction in the riding ring — double the right angle to make a straight angle — and the book closes by giving both numbers, ninety and one hundred eighty. Students join two right-angle cutouts point to point, trace and measure the opening, then argue the same fact with the medallion covered and the corners in their hands.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Join two right angles (5 min)
Put your two right-angle corners on the paper so their points touch at one dot and one straight edge of each lies along the other. Hold them still and trace all the way around the outside opening you have made. Say what the two outer edges look like now that the corners are joined.
Word preview: double
Now double the right angle to make a straight angle.
Radius rode his horse at a trot to the center of the ring and made an exact right angle turn.
2. Measure what you made (5 min)
Measure the opening you traced, with the center of your medallion on the dot. Write that measure in degrees and write the two measures you started with underneath it. Say all three numbers as one sentence: ninety and ninety make one hundred eighty.
Word preview: half
A right angle measures 90 degrees.
A straight line measures 180 degrees.
3. Argue it without measuring (6 min)
Cover your medallion. Tell your partner why two right angles joined this way have to make a straight angle, using only the corners in your hands. Your partner may ask you one question, and your answer to it must contain a number.
Word preview: double
You can't get an angle straighter than that.
4. Test one more claim (4 min)
Fold your traced straight angle in half along the dot and measure one of the two halves. Say whether every half of a straight angle is a right angle. Show your partner the fold that convinces you, and say the number it gave.
Word preview: half
It formed a perfect corner.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Measure what you made (5 min)
Measure the opening you traced with the medallion centered on the dot. Write it in degrees with the two starting measures underneath.
Word preview: half
A right angle measures 90 degrees.
A straight line measures 180 degrees.
2. Argue it without measuring (4 min)
Cover the medallion and tell your partner why two right angles must make a straight angle. Answer their one question with a number in it.
Word preview: double
You can't get an angle straighter than that.

Three levels

Support: Keep both corner cutouts in your hands the whole time, including while you argue, and push them together and apart as you talk so the corners carry what the words do not yet. The measuring and the number sentence stay exactly as they are; only the argument gets the frame: two right angles make ___ degrees because ___ and ___ make ___.
At Grade: Join two right angles point to point, trace and measure the opening, then argue with the medallion covered why the result has to be one hundred eighty degrees, answering a partner's question with a number in the answer.
Extension: Show that three right angles joined the same way do not make a straight angle, and say what they do make. Then find how many right angles it takes to close the circle the whole way round, and prove it with your corners before you say the number.

English learners

Joining two corners and reading one number is language-free work, and a student can carry the whole demonstration with their hands. What is hard in English is the connective the third step depends on — because, so, that means — which is exactly what the argument needs. Rehearse it once: two right angles make 180 degrees because 90 and 90 make 180. Invite students to make the argument in their strongest language first, then give it once in English with every number still in it.

Materials

Right angle corner cutouts, two per student
Plain paper, one sheet per student
Pencils
Paper circle medallions printed with a scale numbered to 360, one per student
Word cards: double, half

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Medallion, Two Right Angle Corners and Word Cards card set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Double the Right Angle

Cut-out sheet: medallion, two right angle corners, word cards

Cut out the medallion and both corners. Each corner has one square corner and two straight edges.

Word cards

double

half

Join, Trace and Measure Sheet full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Double the Right Angle

Join, trace and measure

Put both corners on the dot, points touching, one straight edge of each along the other.

Trace all the way around the outside opening you made.

The opening I traced measures ____________ degrees

The two I started with measure ____________ degrees and ____________ degrees

Argument Frame Strips Support strip set

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Double the Right Angle

Argument frame strips — Support

Keep both corners in your hands. Push them together and apart as you say it.

Two right angles make ____________ degrees because ____________ and ____________ make ____________.

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: Ninety and Ninety Make One Hundred Eighty full page

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland — Double the Right Angle — Teacher Key

The three numbers

The traced opening measures 180 degrees. The two the student started with are 90 degrees and 90 degrees. The sentence the step asks for is ninety and ninety make one hundred eighty.

What the two outer edges look like

They lie in one straight line. Expect straight, flat, a straight line, or one long line rather than a technical word.

The argument with the medallion covered

There is no single wording. A strong argument uses both corners and both numbers: each corner is 90 degrees, they are joined so no gap and no overlap is left between them, so together they cover 90 and 90, which is 180 degrees, and 180 degrees is the straight angle. The partner's one question must be answered with a number in it, so a strong answer names 90, 180, or the sum.

The last claim

Folding the traced straight angle in half along the dot gives two halves, and one half measures 90 degrees, a right angle. A strong answer says yes and points to the fold that made the two halves match, then gives the number the medallion read.

Read for

A close argument would still hold if the corners were a different size on the page, because it rests on the two 90s and on the join leaving no gap. A loose argument reports the measurement again (I measured it and it said 180) or appeals to the look of it (it just goes flat), which is the thing covering the medallion was meant to take away. Support says the same argument from the frame with the corners in hand; that is the target, not a lesser one.

Extension

Three right angles joined the same way make 270 degrees, which is more than a straight angle and not a straight line. Four right angles close the circle at 360 degrees; expect students to lay all four corners round the dot before they say the number.

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.

6. Change One Word, Change the Angle Integrated · Students build and measure both results of a one-word change in Sir Degrees' instruction, then say the two sentences side by side.

Students build and measure both results of a one-word change in Sir Degrees' instruction, then say the two sentences side by side.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the sentence and build what it says (5 min)
Students read Sir Degrees' instruction aloud, then join two right-angle cutouts point to point, trace the opening and measure it with the numbered circle.
2. Swap the word and build the second result (6 min)
Students take the sentence with one word changed, say what it now requires before they touch anything, then fold a right angle in half, trace and measure that opening.
3. Put the two measures side by side (5 min)
Students write 180 and 45 beside the same starting 90 and find how much of a gap the one word made between the two results.
4. Say both sentences to a partner (4 min)
Students say each version of the instruction with its own measure attached, then say in their own words what the changed word did to the number.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Swap the word and build the second result (6 min)
Students take the sentence with one word changed, say what it now requires before they touch anything, then fold a right angle in half, trace and measure that opening.
2. Put the two measures side by side (5 min)
Students write 180 and 45 beside the same starting 90 and find how much of a gap the one word made between the two results.

Three levels

Support: Give the sentence frame on a strip — when the word is ___, the right angle becomes ___ degrees — and let students fill it aloud twice before writing. Both builds and both measurements stay exactly as they are; only the sentence is scaffolded.
At grade: Students build and measure both results, record 180 and 45 against the starting 90, and say and write both versions of the sentence with the numbers in them.
Extension: Students find a third word that could go in the same slot, say what measure it would demand, and then build it and check. A word that produces a measure the cutouts cannot make is a good answer if the student can say why.

English learners

The mathematics of this lesson is almost entirely language-free: a child who can fold and measure has the whole thing. The English that carries the load is a single verb, double, and its partner halve, which many languages express with a noun phrase instead of a verb. Rehearse both directions with the cutouts in hand — double 90 and you get 180, halve 90 and you get 45 — and let students say what the word did in their strongest language before giving the English sentence.

Materials

Right angle corner cutouts, two per student
Paper circle medallions printed with a scale numbered to 360, one per student
Plain paper, one sheet per student
Recording strips, one per student
Pencils
The book's instruction sentence and its swapped version, written one above the other

Standards & curriculum

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

IB PYP developmental alignment

Phases are not grades. The Primary Years Programme is a developmental continuum and your school places each student in a phase, so this names the strand the lesson works in and the phases it could sit across. Confirm against your own school's placement.

Measurement · Phases 1–3

Phase 1: Compare and describe measurable attributes of objects and sequence familiar events using direct experience and non-standard units.
Phase 2: Use standard units, estimation, measuring tools, calendars, money, temperature, and time to describe and solve practical problems.
Phase 3: Measure perimeter, area, and volume; select appropriate units and tools; interpret scales and develop angle as a measure of rotation.

Shape and space · Phases 1–3

Phase 1: Describe and compare 2D and 3D shapes and use everyday spatial language for position, direction, paths, regions, and boundaries.
Phase 2: Classify 2D and 3D shapes by properties; explore symmetry and transformations; interpret and create simple directions.
Phase 3: Analyze regular and irregular polygons, congruence, similarity, symmetry, angles, and coordinates and apply geometry to real situations.

7. The Corridor the Book Never Measures Integrated · Students find the measure of the fourth corridor, which the text never states, and name the sentence that proves it.

Students find the measure of the fourth corridor, which the text never states, and name the sentence that proves it.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Collect the three measures the text gives (5 min)
Students find and read the three sentences that report the careful measures, write 93, 85 and 89 on the recording strip and place each on the number line between 80 and 100.
2. Show that none of them is a right angle (5 min)
Students write a subtraction against 90 for each measure and say the gap in degrees, establishing that all three miss and by how much.
3. Name the fourth measure and the line that funds it (6 min)
Students write the measure of the corridor the book never measures and, beside it, copy the sentence that requires it to be exactly that. Neither half is accepted without the other.
4. Read your evidence aloud (4 min)
Students read their chosen sentence to a partner and say why that sentence, and not the three measurements, is what fixes the fourth number.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Show that none of them is a right angle (5 min)
Students write a subtraction against 90 for each measure and say the gap in degrees, establishing that all three miss and by how much.
2. Name the fourth measure and the line that funds it (6 min)
Students write the measure of the corridor the book never measures and, beside it, copy the sentence that requires it to be exactly that. Neither half is accepted without the other.

Three levels

Support: Work from a strip that already carries the four candidate sentences in the order they appear in the book, so the search is done. Students still do every subtraction and still choose which sentence funds the answer, and still may not write the number without a sentence beside it.
At grade: Students locate the three measuring sentences themselves, subtract each against 90, name the fourth corridor as 90 degrees and copy the sentence that requires it, then defend that pairing aloud.
Extension: Students argue the case against their own answer: what would have to be true of the fourth corridor for the story to still work if it measured 91? They must say what the parchment would have had to say instead, using numbers.

English learners

Every step of the arithmetic here is language-independent, and students who cannot yet read the sentences can still do all three subtractions. What blocks them is the citation, so read all four candidate sentences aloud before the lesson starts and leave them displayed. Rehearse the frame: the fourth corridor measures 90 degrees because the parchment says find the right to reach the king. Students may explain the elimination in their strongest language and give only the frame in English.

Materials

Recording strips, one per student
Number line strips marked from 80 to 100 in ones, one per pair
Pencils
The four candidate sentences from the book, displayed in book order

Standards & curriculum

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

IB PYP developmental alignment

Measurement · Phases 1–3

Phase 1: Compare and describe measurable attributes of objects and sequence familiar events using direct experience and non-standard units.
Phase 2: Use standard units, estimation, measuring tools, calendars, money, temperature, and time to describe and solve practical problems.
Phase 3: Measure perimeter, area, and volume; select appropriate units and tools; interpret scales and develop angle as a measure of rotation.

Number · Phases 1–3

Phase 1: Develop meaning for counting, quantity, number relationships, simple operations, and early fractions in meaningful contexts.
Phase 2: Develop place value and whole-number operations, mental strategies, fractions, and mathematical language for practical problem solving.
Phase 3: Extend number understanding to larger numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, and efficient strategies for the four operations.

8. Twice the Right Angle, Half the Straight Angle Integrated · Students build the book's two stated angles, then say the relation between 90 and 180 forwards and backwards about one arrangement.

Students build the book's two stated angles, then say the relation between 90 and 180 forwards and backwards about one arrangement.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Build both angles from the book's two numbers (5 min)
Students trace one right-angle cutout, then join two of them point to point and trace the larger opening, measuring both with the numbered circle to confirm 90 and 180.
2. Say the relation forward (5 min)
Students write and say how much larger the straight angle is than the right angle, and then how many times as large, pointing at the tracing for each sentence.
3. Turn each sentence around (6 min)
Students write the reversed sentence for both relations, checking that the comparison word changed from more to fewer and from twice to half while the tracing stayed exactly the same.
4. Catch the wrong reversal (4 min)
Students are given a reversed sentence that kept the wrong comparison word, say what is wrong with it and fix it out loud using the tracing as proof.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Say the relation forward (5 min)
Students write and say how much larger the straight angle is than the right angle, and then how many times as large, pointing at the tracing for each sentence.
2. Turn each sentence around (6 min)
Students write the reversed sentence for both relations, checking that the comparison word changed from more to fewer and from twice to half while the tracing stayed exactly the same.

Three levels

Support: Give the four sentence frames on a strip with the comparison words left blank and the numbers already placed. Students still measure both angles, still choose which word fills each blank and still point at the tracing while they read. Only the sentence construction is carried for them.
At grade: Students build and measure both angles, write and say the additive relation and the multiplicative one in both directions about one tracing, and correct a reversal that kept the wrong word.
Extension: Students find a pair from elsewhere in the book whose relation cannot be said multiplicatively — the 55 hallway against the 120 one — and say why the additive sentence works there but the multiplicative one does not come out whole.

English learners

Comparative syntax is where this lesson is hard and it is hard in a way that has nothing to do with the mathematics. English puts the larger quantity first and marks the relation with an -er ending plus than, then reverses both the word and the order to say the same fact; many languages mark the comparison with a separate particle and do not move the nouns at all, so a student may produce a reversal that is perfectly logical in their first language and wrong in English. The multiplicative pair adds twice and half, which several languages express with a fraction phrase rather than a single word. Rehearse all four aloud against the tracing — 180 is 90 more than 90, 90 is 90 fewer than 180, 180 is twice 90, 90 is half of 180 — and let students say which sentence they mean in their strongest language before choosing the English one.

Materials

Right angle corner cutouts, two per student
Paper circle medallions printed with a scale numbered to 360, one per student
Plain paper, one sheet per student
Pencils
The book's two measure sentences, displayed one above the other

Standards & curriculum

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

IB PYP developmental alignment

Shape and space · Phases 1–3

Phase 1: Describe and compare 2D and 3D shapes and use everyday spatial language for position, direction, paths, regions, and boundaries.
Phase 2: Classify 2D and 3D shapes by properties; explore symmetry and transformations; interpret and create simple directions.
Phase 3: Analyze regular and irregular polygons, congruence, similarity, symmetry, angles, and coordinates and apply geometry to real situations.

Number · Phases 1–3

Phase 1: Develop meaning for counting, quantity, number relationships, simple operations, and early fractions in meaningful contexts.
Phase 2: Develop place value and whole-number operations, mental strategies, fractions, and mathematical language for practical problem solving.
Phase 3: Extend number understanding to larger numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, and efficient strategies for the four operations.

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. Sir Cumference: How an Author Cuts a Word to Make a Name Language · Wordplay and Word Formation in Names

This book names almost everyone by splitting a longer word across a title, and once, in Radius' own speech, it says out loud that it is doing it. Students say the names aloud until they hear the buried word, mark the cut, then follow Angleland to England and see the same move done to a real place name. The work is hearing a word inside a word and describing the change, not measuring anything the word refers to.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Say the names aloud and hear the hidden word (5 min)
Read the printed passage aloud in a pair, one name each, slowly. Say Sir Cumference three times running the two words together until you hear a longer word underneath. Write on your name-splitting chart the word you heard, then draw a line in it showing exactly where the author cut it to make a knight's title. Do the same for Lady Di of Ameter.
Word preview: Cumference
One day, Radius' parents, Sir Cumference, and Lady Di of Ameter, came to watch his lessons. Show us what you have learned, they said.
2. Find the name the story says it made (5 min)
Most of this book's jokes are never explained, but this one is. Read the printed sentence and underline the four words that tell you who a word was named after. On your chart write the name Radius honours and the word he makes from it, then say aloud to your partner one sentence beginning: The author named ___ after ___.
Word preview: honour
I call the parts of a circle degrees in honour of my teacher Sir Degrees.
3. Trace one name from the story into the real world (6 min)
Read both printed passages in order, the king's proclamation first. Write the kingdom's name from the first passage, then the real place name from the second, one under the other, and circle every letter the two names share. Tell your partner in one sentence what the author changed and what he kept. Add both names to your chart.
Word preview: kingdom
From this day forth let this kingdom be called Angleland. Banners will fly on every castle tower.
Angleland is still there on very old maps, but today we call it England.
4. Build one name the same way (4 min)
Choose a long word you already know well from any subject. Cut it into two pieces the way the author cut his, and write a character name from the pieces, adding Sir, Lady or King in front. Read your name aloud to the group and let them guess the word inside it before you tell them.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Say the names aloud and hear the hidden word (4 min)
Read the printed passage aloud with a partner. Say Sir Cumference three times running the words together until you hear a longer word underneath, then write that word on your chart and draw a line showing where the author cut it.
Word preview: Cumference
One day, Radius' parents, Sir Cumference, and Lady Di of Ameter, came to watch his lessons. Show us what you have learned, they said.
2. Trace one name from the story into the real world (5 min)
Read both printed passages in order. Write the kingdom's name under the real place name and circle every letter they share, then tell your partner in one sentence what the author changed and what he kept.
Word preview: kingdom
From this day forth let this kingdom be called Angleland. Banners will fly on every castle tower.
Angleland is still there on very old maps, but today we call it England.

Three levels

Support: Stay with Sir Cumference alone. Read the first printed passage with a partner and say the name aloud together five times, sliding the two words closer each time. Write the long word you hear on the chart, then draw one line where the author cut it. Do not add the other names.
At Grade: Work Sir Cumference and Angleland both. For each, write the everyday word on the chart, mark the cut or the letter change, and say in one sentence what the author kept so a reader could still hear the original.
Extension: After both names, write two sentences on why Angleland works differently from Sir Cumference: one name hides a word inside a title, the other changes a place name that already existed. Name the reader each joke needs in order to land.

English learners

Splitting a long word to make a joke name only works if a listener already knows the long word, so this skill does not transfer across languages by itself. Invite students to say a name from their strongest language that hides another word inside it, or a place name that changed when it crossed a border, and to tell the group the two words it holds. Rehearsable frame: The name ___ hides the word ___, and the author cut it after ___.

Materials

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland, the passage printed in this step
name-splitting chart
pencil
Word cards: Cumference, honour, kingdom

Standards & curriculum

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

10. Foe and Go: How the Warning on the Door Is Built to Be Heard Reading · Rhyme, Rhythm and Sound in Verse

The parchment in the courtyard is the only verse in a prose book, and it behaves like verse: paired end rhymes and a tapped beat that make a warning stick in a reader's ear. Students tap the beat, map which line-endings answer which, then break one rhyme on purpose and say what a listener loses. The skill is describing how a poem's sound is put together, which is why the swap is a word swap and never a route decision.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the warning aloud and tap the beat (5 min)
Read the two printed lines aloud twice with a partner, tapping the table once on every stressed syllable. Count your taps for each line and write both counts on your rhyme map. Then circle the last word of each line and say the two words one after the other so the whole group hears the match.
Word preview: foe
Warning, stranger, friend or foe. Dangerous weight as forth you go.
2. Map the rhyming pairs in the rest of the warning (6 min)
Read the printed passage aloud, one line each, around your group of four. Write the last word of every line down the side of your rhyme map, then draw a line joining each pair that rhymes. Mark with a star the one pair where the rhyming words are furthest apart in the passage.
Word preview: writhing
Finding next big, straight and slight. One wrong turn means lost to all, in a writhing, screaming fall. Find the right to reach the king, or you will feel the dragons sting.
3. Break the rhyme and hear what it costs (5 min)
Take the last line of the printed passage and swap its final word for a word that means nearly the same thing but does not rhyme, such as bite. Read the whole passage aloud with your swap in place. Write on your rhyme map one sentence saying what changed for a listener, using the words sounded and ended.
Word preview: rhyme
Finding next big, straight and slight. One wrong turn means lost to all, in a writhing, screaming fall. Find the right to reach the king, or you will feel the dragons sting.
4. Perform the warning to a listener (4 min)
In pairs, one of you performs both printed passages aloud as the warning on the door, leaning on every rhyming word. The listener holds up a finger each time a rhyme lands and says afterwards which pair was easiest to hear. Swap and repeat.
Warning, stranger, friend or foe. Dangerous weight as forth you go.
Finding next big, straight and slight. One wrong turn means lost to all, in a writhing, screaming fall. Find the right to reach the king, or you will feel the dragons sting.
Finding next big, straight and slight. One wrong turn means lost to all, in a writhing, screaming fall. Find the right to reach the king, or you will feel the dragons sting.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read the warning aloud and tap the beat (4 min)
Read the two printed lines aloud twice with a partner, tapping once on every stressed syllable, and write both counts on your rhyme map. Circle the last word of each line and say the two words together.
Word preview: foe
Warning, stranger, friend or foe. Dangerous weight as forth you go.
2. Map the rhyming pairs in the rest of the warning (5 min)
Read the printed passage aloud, one line each. Write the last word of every line down the side of your rhyme map and join each rhyming pair with a line.
Word preview: writhing
Finding next big, straight and slight. One wrong turn means lost to all, in a writhing, screaming fall. Find the right to reach the king, or you will feel the dragons sting.

Three levels

Support: Stay with the two lines in the first printed passage. Read them aloud with a partner three times, tapping the beat, then say the two end words foe and go one after the other and write them side by side on the rhyme map. Nothing else goes on the map.
At Grade: Map every line ending across both printed passages, join the rhyming pairs, and write one sentence naming the pair a listener hears most clearly and why its two words sit close together.
Extension: After mapping both passages, write three lines of your own warning for a different door in this castle, keeping the same rhyming pairs pattern you mapped. Read it aloud and mark where your beat does not match the book's.

English learners

Rhyme is heard, not read, and which sounds count as a rhyme differs by language: foe and go pair in English because of a vowel English speakers hear as one sound. Ask students to say a rhyming pair from a song or verse in their strongest language, then say what part of the two words is the same. That comparison is the skill. Rehearsable frame: ___ and ___ rhyme because they end with the same sound, ___.

Materials

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland, the passage printed in this step
rhyme map
pencil
Word cards: foe, writhing, rhyme

Standards & curriculum

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

11. He Is Not Old Enough: Reading Four People Who Want Four Things Reading · Character Motive from Dialogue

One supper scene puts four people around a table and lets them disagree entirely in speech and small gestures. Students sort who says what, put a want-sentence beside each name, then hunt the single line that ends a father's refusal without ever contradicting him. The passage is the cleanest dialogue in the book and needs no repair, so every claim students make can be pointed to on the page.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Sort the supper table into four speakers (5 min)
Read the printed passage twice with a partner. On your speaker chart write the four people at this table, and beside each one copy the words they say. Two of the four never argue in words at all, so beside those write what their bodies do instead.
Word preview: squire
At supper, Sir Degrees said, Radius is the best squire I have ever taught. He is ready to go on a quest. He is not old enough. Said Sir Cumference, looking worried. Lady Di, smiled. You were the same age dear when you went on your first quest. Radius sat up straighter. I am ready, father. He said, please let me go. Sir Cumference slowly looked at each of them. Finally he smiled and nodded.
2. Name what each speaker wants (6 min)
Nobody at this table says the word want. Working from the printed passage, write on your chart one sentence for each speaker beginning with their name and the words wants Radius to, and finish it from what they actually say. Then underline in the passage the exact words that made you decide for Sir Cumference.
Word preview: worried
At supper, Sir Degrees said, Radius is the best squire I have ever taught. He is ready to go on a quest. He is not old enough. Said Sir Cumference, looking worried. Lady Di, smiled. You were the same age dear when you went on your first quest. Radius sat up straighter. I am ready, father. He said, please let me go. Sir Cumference slowly looked at each of them. Finally he smiled and nodded.
3. Find the sentence that turns the argument (5 min)
One line in the printed passage changes Sir Cumference's mind without ever telling him he is wrong. With a partner, choose the sentence you think does it and copy it onto your chart. Then say aloud, in one sentence, why that line is harder to argue with than saying he is old enough would be.
Word preview: quest
At supper, Sir Degrees said, Radius is the best squire I have ever taught. He is ready to go on a quest. He is not old enough. Said Sir Cumference, looking worried. Lady Di, smiled. You were the same age dear when you went on your first quest. Radius sat up straighter. I am ready, father. He said, please let me go. Sir Cumference slowly looked at each of them. Finally he smiled and nodded.
4. Play the table and stop at the change (4 min)
In fours, read the printed passage aloud with one person per speaker, standing when your character speaks. The person playing Sir Cumference sits down the moment he stops refusing. Afterwards, each group says which line the sitting followed.
At supper, Sir Degrees said, Radius is the best squire I have ever taught. He is ready to go on a quest. He is not old enough. Said Sir Cumference, looking worried. Lady Di, smiled. You were the same age dear when you went on your first quest. Radius sat up straighter. I am ready, father. He said, please let me go. Sir Cumference slowly looked at each of them. Finally he smiled and nodded.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Sort the supper table into four speakers (4 min)
Read the printed passage twice with a partner. Write the four people at this table on your speaker chart and copy beside each the words they say, or what their bodies do if they say nothing.
Word preview: squire
At supper, Sir Degrees said, Radius is the best squire I have ever taught. He is ready to go on a quest. He is not old enough. Said Sir Cumference, looking worried. Lady Di, smiled. You were the same age dear when you went on your first quest. Radius sat up straighter. I am ready, father. He said, please let me go. Sir Cumference slowly looked at each of them. Finally he smiled and nodded.
2. Find the sentence that turns the argument (5 min)
One line in the printed passage changes Sir Cumference's mind without telling him he is wrong. Copy that sentence onto your chart and say aloud why it is harder to argue with than a flat contradiction.
Word preview: quest
At supper, Sir Degrees said, Radius is the best squire I have ever taught. He is ready to go on a quest. He is not old enough. Said Sir Cumference, looking worried. Lady Di, smiled. You were the same age dear when you went on your first quest. Radius sat up straighter. I am ready, father. He said, please let me go. Sir Cumference slowly looked at each of them. Finally he smiled and nodded.

Three levels

Support: Work Sir Cumference alone. Read the printed passage with a partner and find the one sentence where he refuses. Copy it onto the chart, then answer aloud: does he still refuse at the end of the passage, and which words tell you? Leave the other three speakers.
At Grade: Fill the chart for all four speakers, write one want-sentence each, and mark the line that turns Sir Cumference. Keep only the evidence you can put a finger on in the printed passage.
Extension: After the chart, write four sentences of the same scene with Lady Di silent, then say in one line what Sir Cumference would need to hear instead and why his own memory was the strongest argument available.

English learners

Persuading a parent by reminding them of their own youth is a move that exists in most families, but the politeness carrying it here is English-specific, especially the softening in please let me go and the tag dear. Invite students to say, in their strongest language, how someone in their family asks permission for something big, then say what the English words are doing in the same place. Rehearsable frame: ___ wants Radius to ___, and I know because he says ___.

Materials

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland, the passage printed in this step
speaker chart
pencil
Word cards: squire, worried, quest

Standards & curriculum

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

12. Unseen Things Scuttled: How the Maze Is Made Frightening Reading · Sensory Language and Comparison

The tunnels under the castle are frightening because of word choice, not events, and the book keeps the danger unnamed for pages. Students sort the describing words by which sense each one works on, find the two places where a creature is present but never named, and open the one comparison that hands the fire a set of jaws. Everything students mark is visible in the sentence printed beside it.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Sort the maze words by sense (5 min)
Read the two printed passages aloud with a partner. On your senses grid, write each describing word under the sense it works on: eyes, ears, skin. Words like dark go under eyes, scuttled under ears. Count how many land under each heading and say the largest count aloud.
Word preview: scuttled
The way was dark and damp. Around him unseen things scuttled in the corners.
As Radius looked round for a way out, spiderwebs caught in his hair and tickled legs brushed against his face.
2. Find the thing the author never names (6 min)
Read both printed passages. In each, underline the words that stand in for a creature the author refuses to name, then write on your grid what a reader pictures instead. Tell your partner in one sentence why unseen things is scarier to read than a named animal would be.
Word preview: unseen
The way was dark and damp. Around him unseen things scuttled in the corners.
The thumps grew louder. Something snuffled and sniffed as if hunting for him. Radius ran through the darkness.
3. Mark the comparison that gives the fire teeth (5 min)
Read the printed sentence aloud twice. Circle the word like, then underline the two things it joins. Write on your grid what the flames are being compared to, and read the sentence a third time with everything after like covered up. Say aloud what the covered words were doing.
Word preview: fiery
The stairs came to an end at a fiery pit where huge flames leaped up like angry snapping jaws.
4. Write two sentences of your own dark corridor (4 min)
Write two sentences describing a corridor no one in this book walked down. One sentence must work on hearing only, and the other must compare something to a living creature using the word like. Read both aloud and let your partner name which sense each one used.
Word preview: corridor

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Sort the maze words by sense (4 min)
Read the two printed passages aloud with a partner and write each describing word on the senses grid under eyes, ears or skin. Say aloud which heading collected the most.
Word preview: scuttled
The way was dark and damp. Around him unseen things scuttled in the corners.
As Radius looked round for a way out, spiderwebs caught in his hair and tickled legs brushed against his face.
2. Mark the comparison that gives the fire teeth (5 min)
Read the printed sentence aloud twice. Circle like, underline the two things it joins, and write on your grid what the flames are compared to. Read it once more with the words after like covered and say what they were doing.
Word preview: fiery
The stairs came to an end at a fiery pit where huge flames leaped up like angry snapping jaws.

Three levels

Support: Use the first printed passage only. Read it aloud with a partner and place just four words on the grid: dark, damp, unseen, scuttled. For each, say aloud whether you would see it, hear it or feel it, and let your partner agree before you write.
At Grade: Sort words from all three printed passages onto the grid, then write one sentence naming the sense the author leans on most in the maze and one word from the page that proves it.
Extension: After the grid, rewrite the fire sentence twice, once comparing the flames to something harmless and once to something worse than jaws, and write one line on which version changes how the next sentence would be read.

English learners

Sound-words carry meaning that translation flattens: scuttled and snuffled tell an English reader the size and the nearness of a creature before any noun arrives. Invite students to say the word for a small hurrying animal sound in their strongest language and to say what it makes them picture. That picture is what the English word is doing. Rehearsable frame: The word ___ works on my ___, and it makes me picture ___.

Materials

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland, the passage printed in this step
senses grid
pencil
Word cards: scuttled, unseen, fiery, corridor

Standards & curriculum

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

13. But How Did You Do It: Retelling What Happened, In Order Discussion · Retelling a Sequence in Order

The king asks Radius a direct question and gets a two-sentence answer, which leaves the fuller telling to the reader. Students cut the book's most carefully staged moment into its stages, put them back in order, and retell it aloud with order words while a partner checks the sequence against the strip. The talk is about what came before what and which words hold a retelling together, never about what the numbers on the page mean.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the answer Radius actually gives (5 min)
Read the printed passage aloud with a partner, one taking the king and one taking Radius. Underline the king's question, then underline the two sentences Radius offers as his answer. On your retelling strip, write whether his answer tells the king what he did, why he kept going, or both.
Word preview: explained
It seems you have found him, chuckled the king. But how did you do it? Radius bowed. My medallion helped me figure out which paths to take. Knowledge gave me the courage to keep going. He explained.
2. Cut the careful moment into ordered stages (6 min)
Read the printed passage and cut your retelling strip into the stages it moves through: telling himself to slow down, lining the medallion up, and the three tries he talks himself through. Lay the pieces in the order the passage gives them. Then swap two pieces on purpose, read it aloud that way, and say what stops making sense.
Word preview: carefully
Slow down! Radius told himself and measure once more. He carefully lined up the medallion and read the numbers. The first angle was 93. Too big, he said. The next angle was 85. Too small, he muttered. The third one was 89. Almost right, he said.
3. Retell it aloud with order words (5 min)
Using your ordered strip and the printed passage, retell what Radius did to a partner in five sentences, joining them with first, next, then, after that and finally. Your partner holds the strip and stops you whenever your order words do not match the order of the pieces.
Word preview: finally
Slow down! Radius told himself and measure once more. He carefully lined up the medallion and read the numbers. The first angle was 93. Too big, he said. The next angle was 85. Too small, he muttered. The third one was 89. Almost right, he said.
4. Write the fuller answer the king never got (4 min)
Radius answers his king in two sentences. Write the longer answer, four sentences, in Radius' voice, using your order words and the stages on your strip. Read it to your partner, who checks that every stage is there and that no order word is used twice.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read the answer Radius actually gives (4 min)
Read the printed passage aloud with a partner, one as the king and one as Radius. Underline the king's question and the two sentences Radius answers with, then say whether he told the king what he did, why he kept going, or both.
Word preview: explained
It seems you have found him, chuckled the king. But how did you do it? Radius bowed. My medallion helped me figure out which paths to take. Knowledge gave me the courage to keep going. He explained.
2. Retell it aloud with order words (5 min)
Read the printed passage, then retell what Radius did to a partner in five sentences joined by first, next, then, after that and finally. Your partner stops you whenever an order word does not match what the passage does next.
Word preview: finally
Slow down! Radius told himself and measure once more. He carefully lined up the medallion and read the numbers. The first angle was 93. Too big, he said. The next angle was 85. Too small, he muttered. The third one was 89. Almost right, he said.

Three levels

Support: Use three stages only from the second printed passage: slowing down, lining up the medallion, and the first thing he says afterwards. Lay them in order and retell those three aloud with first, next and then. Do not cut the strip further.
At Grade: Cut the full strip, order every stage, and retell the passage in five sentences using each order word once while your partner checks against the pieces.
Extension: After retelling, write the same stages a second time as the king would report them to his court, changing every I to Radius, and mark the one order word you had to change to keep the sequence clear.

English learners

Order words are the joints of a retelling, and their number and placement differ by language, with some putting the time word at the end of the clause rather than the front. Ask students to retell three of these stages in their strongest language first, then name the words that did the joining, before retelling in English. Rehearsable frame: First Radius ___, next he ___, and finally he ___.

Materials

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland, the passage printed in this step
retelling strip
pencil
scissors
order words card
Word cards: explained, carefully, finally

Standards & curriculum

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