Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin

$Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin book cover$

Grade 3
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.

1Pies Times Five: What the Spell Does to a Count
2Twenty-Seven Pebbles: Groups, Rows, and an Equation
3Peter's Repairs: How Many Appear?
4Times a Zero: Arguing the Rule from the Mats
5Spell Cards: Saying the Product Before You Count It

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.

6Times or Plus: One Word Decides What the River Gets
7Put the Pies Back in Order
8All but Two: Finding the Number the Book Never Says

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.

9What Peter Does When Nothing Works
10First, Next, Then, Finally: How Peter Got the Stick
11What the Gardener's Sentence Tells You About Wailed
12The Question and the Because
13Ten Years Later: This Book and the Old Tale

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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. Pies Times Five: What the Spell Does to a Count Concept · Multiplication as equal groups

The book hands over one clean multiplication with both of its numbers in place: Peter points the stick at four pies, says the spell, and twenty pies are on the table. Students rebuild that spell with counters, four pies each becoming a row of five, then count the rows by fives and write the equation that says the same thing.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Set out the four pies (5 min)
Listen to the sentence, then put four counters in a row on the mat: these are the four pies on the table before Peter says anything. Say aloud how many pies are there now and how many the book says are there afterwards. Leave the four counters where they are, because each one is a group you are about to fill.
Word preview: times
He pointed the X at the pies and said, Pies times five. Twenty pies appeared.
2. Turn each pie into five (5 min)
Replace each of your four counters with a row of five. Count the rows by fives, touching one whole row for each number word: five, ten, fifteen, twenty. Tell your partner how many rows you made and how many counters are in every row.
Word preview: groups, equal
Multiplying is a fast way of counting groups or sets.
3. Write the spell as an equation (4 min)
Write 4 × 5 = 20 on your board beside your rows. Ring the 4 and point at the four rows; ring the 5 and point inside one row. Say out loud which number tells how many groups there are and which tells how many are in each group.
Word preview: equal
4. Do the branches the same way (6 min)
Build the fire spell: four counters for the four branches Peter carried in, then a row of ten in place of each one. Count by tens to forty, then write 4 × 10 = 40 under your first equation. Tell your partner what stayed the same across the two spells and what changed.
Word preview: times, groups
He made a fire with the 40 branches that appeared.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Turn each pie into five (5 min)
Put four counters on the mat for the four pies, then replace each one with a row of five. Count the rows by fives, touching one whole row per number word, to twenty. Say how many rows you made and how many are in each.
Word preview: groups, equal
Multiplying is a fast way of counting groups or sets.
2. Write the spell as an equation (4 min)
Write 4 × 5 = 20 beside your rows. Ring the 4 and point at the rows; ring the 5 and point inside one row. Say which number counts groups and which counts pies.
Word preview: equal

Three levels

Support: Stay with the pie spell and leave the branches out. Build the four rows of five with your partner, then count to twenty twice: once touching every counter, and once touching only the rows. Hearing the same total come out of both counts is the one thing to carry away, and it is worth the whole lesson.
At Grade: Build both spells, count each one by its group size, and write the two equations with the factors ringed and named aloud. Say each equation first as a sentence about pies or branches, then as numbers.
Extension: Once both equations are written, rebuild the twenty pies as five groups of four instead of four groups of five. Count them, then tell your partner why the total did not move even though the rows look nothing alike, and whether the little man's spell would have worked said the other way round.

English learners

The arithmetic travels: counting by fives and the equation 4 × 5 = 20 look the same in whatever language a child counted in first, so a student can build the whole of step two before saying a word of English. What does not travel is the English phrase that names the two jobs. "Four groups of five" puts the number of groups first, and several languages order it the other way, so a student may build exactly the right thing and describe it backwards. Run one sentence until it is automatic, with a hand on the rows: how many groups were made, how many are in each, and how many there are altogether. Let students count and reason aloud in their family language while they build, then report the frame in English.

Materials

Round counters, 60 per pair
Group mats, five per pair
Small whiteboard and marker, one per student
Word cards: equal, groups, times

Workbook

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

Group Mats full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Pies Times Five: What the Spell Does to a Count

Group Mats

Put one group of counters on each mat.

Word Cards: equal, groups, times card set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Pies Times Five: What the Spell Does to a Count

Word Cards

Cut the cards apart on the lines.

Saying What You Built strip set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Pies Times Five: What the Spell Does to a Count

Saying What You Built

Put your hand on your rows and say the sentence out loud. Say a number in each blank.

Strip 1

I made ____________ groups.

There are ____________ in each group.

Altogether there are ____________.

Strip 2

I made ____________ groups.

There are ____________ in each group.

Altogether there are ____________.

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: Pies Times Five full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Pies Times Five: What the Spell Does to a Count

Teacher Key

Teacher copy. This page is not handed to students.

Expected responses — Saying What You Built

The pie spell: I made 4 groups. There are 5 in each group. Altogether there are 20.
The branch spell: I made 4 groups. There are 10 in each group. Altogether there are 40.

Expected responses — equations on the board

4 × 5 = 20, with the 4 ringed and matched to the four rows and the 5 ringed and matched to what sits inside one row.
4 × 10 = 40 written underneath.

Read for

A close response keeps the two jobs straight: the first number counts the groups, the second counts what is in each. A loose response says the right total but names the numbers the other way round, or counts the rows one counter at a time instead of touching a whole row per number word. On the mats, look for four filled mats rather than twenty loose counters.

Extension (Above), which produces no separate page

Five groups of four is also 20. A strong answer says the total held still because the same twenty counters were only rearranged.

Standards & curriculum

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

2. Twenty-Seven Pebbles: Groups, Rows, and an Equation Representation · Equal groups shown as an array

Peter does not guess the number he needs; he picks up twenty-seven pebbles, puts them down in groups of three, and the groups tell him nine. Students carry out that arrangement with counters, slide the groups into rows so the same twenty-seven becomes an array, turn the array a quarter turn to read it the other way, and finish by drawing it on grid paper with both equations underneath. The whole lesson is one quantity holding still while its picture changes twice.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Put twenty-seven in groups of three (5 min)
Count out twenty-seven counters, then push them into groups of three the way Peter puts down his pebbles on the riverbank. Count the groups you made and say that number aloud. Do not go on until your partner has counted your groups and landed on the same number.
Word preview: groups
Peter picked up 27 pebbles and put them down in groups of three.
2. Slide the groups into rows (6 min)
Line each group up so your nine groups become nine straight rows of three, edges touching. Count by threes down the rows, touching one row per number word, all the way to twenty-seven. Show your partner where the nine is in the picture and where the three is.
Word preview: array, row
3. Turn it a quarter turn (5 min)
Turn the whole arrangement a quarter turn so it becomes three rows of nine. Count by nines: nine, eighteen, twenty-seven. Say both sentences about the very same counters, nine groups of three and three groups of nine, without moving anything between them.
Word preview: row
Then he pointed the walking stick and said, stepping stones times nine.
4. Draw it and label it (4 min)
Draw your array on grid paper, one square per counter. Ring one group of three, then write 9 × 3 = 27 and 3 × 9 = 27 underneath. Hand the drawing to your partner and have them point to the group you ringed.
Word preview: array

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Put twenty-seven in groups of three (5 min)
Count out twenty-seven counters and push them into groups of three, the way Peter puts down his pebbles. Count the groups aloud and have your partner check the number.
Word preview: groups
Peter picked up 27 pebbles and put them down in groups of three.
2. Draw it and label it (4 min)
Slide the groups into rows, then draw the array on grid paper, one square per counter. Ring one group of three and write 9 × 3 = 27 underneath.
Word preview: array

Three levels

Support: Work one orientation only. Make the groups of three, slide them into rows, and count by threes to twenty-seven with a finger on each row; skip the quarter turn and write the single equation 9 × 3 = 27 under your drawing. Counting whole rows instead of single counters is the load worth carrying here.
At Grade: Do the full sequence, group and slide and turn and draw, write both equations, and say aloud which number changed places and which one stayed where it was.
Extension: Before you draw, predict how many rows the array would have if the pebbles had gone down in groups of nine instead of threes, and say how you knew. Build it to check, then tell your partner why the total held still at twenty-seven while the picture changed underneath it.

English learners

Number and arrangement carry over untranslated: a child who has grouped twenty-seven counters by threes has done the mathematics whatever language they counted in. The English that does not carry over is "groups of" and "rows of", because the word after "of" names what sits inside each group rather than how many groups there are, and that order is reversed in several languages. Practise the pair of sentences side by side with a finger on the array: "Nine groups of three is twenty-seven. Three groups of nine is twenty-seven." Invite students to count the rows aloud in their first language first and then say both sentences in English.

Materials

Round counters, 30 per pair
Grid paper, one sheet per student
Pencil, one per student
Word cards: array, groups, row

Workbook

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

Grid Paper: Draw and Label the Array full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Twenty-Seven Pebbles: Groups, Rows, and an Equation

Draw It and Label It

Draw your array on the grid, one square for each counter. Ring one group of three.

Write your equations underneath

____________ × ____________ = ____________

____________ × ____________ = ____________

Word Cards: array, groups, row card set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Twenty-Seven Pebbles: Groups, Rows, and an Equation

Word Cards

Cut the cards apart on the lines.

The Pair of Sentences strip set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Twenty-Seven Pebbles: Groups, Rows, and an Equation

The Pair of Sentences

Put a finger on the array and say both sentences out loud, one after the other.

Strip 1

Nine groups of three is twenty-seven.

Strip 2

Three groups of nine is twenty-seven.

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: Twenty-Seven Pebbles full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Twenty-Seven Pebbles: Groups, Rows, and an Equation

Teacher Key

Teacher copy. This page is not handed to students.

Expected responses

Twenty-seven counters pushed into groups of three make nine groups.
The drawing shows nine rows of three, or the same array turned a quarter turn as three rows of nine. Either orientation is correct, as long as the ringed group holds three squares.
Equations: 9 × 3 = 27 and 3 × 9 = 27. Either order on the page is fine.
Support: one equation only, 9 × 3 = 27, and no quarter turn.

Read for

A close response has a solid rectangle of twenty-seven squares with no gaps or ragged rows, and the ringed group of three sits inside one row. A loose response draws twenty-seven squares scattered or in uneven rows, or rings three squares taken from different rows — that is a count of twenty-seven without an array. In the pair of sentences, listen for the word after "of" naming what is inside a group, not how many groups there are.

Extension (Above), which produces no separate page

Groups of nine give three rows. A strong answer says the total held at twenty-seven because nothing was added or taken away, only rearranged.

Standards & curriculum

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

3. Peter's Repairs: How Many Appear? Application · Equal-group word problems within 100

On the road to the castle Peter fixes what the little man broke, and the text states the two numbers each repair needs: what is left, and how many times. Students take the repairs one at a time, two chickens times twelve, four branches times ten, two chairs times fifty, pulling both numbers out of the sentence, computing the count that appears, and answering in a sentence a person could act on. Two of the three answers are printed later in the book, so students check their own arithmetic against the text rather than against the teacher.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Pull the two numbers out of the sentence (5 min)
Read the chicken repair on your card twice. Underline the number of chickens the family still has and ring the number of times Peter multiplies. Say both numbers to your partner, and say which one tells how many are in each group.
Word preview: multiplied
He multiplied by twelve to help a family who had lost all but two of their chickens.
2. Work the chicken repair (4 min)
Build it: twelve groups of two counters, or two groups of twelve, whichever you can count without losing your place. Count what you built, write 2 × 12 = 24, and then write the answer as a sentence a person could act on.
Word preview: times
3. Check a repair the book answers (6 min)
Take the fire repair: four branches, times ten. Build four groups of ten, count by tens, and write the equation before you look at the book's line. Then read the line and tell your partner whether your number matched it.
Word preview: times
He made a fire with the 40 branches that appeared.
4. Take the chair repair (5 min)
Two chairs, times fifty. Use ten-sticks so you are not counting one at a time: build two groups of five sticks, count by tens to one hundred, and write 2 × 50 = 100. Read the book's line and check your number against it.
Word preview: multiplied
He put two chairs in front of Rumpelstiltskin's bed.
A wall of 100 chairs blocked the bed.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Pull the two numbers out of the sentence (5 min)
Read the chicken repair twice. Underline how many chickens the family still has and ring how many times Peter multiplies. Say both numbers to your partner.
Word preview: multiplied
He multiplied by twelve to help a family who had lost all but two of their chickens.
2. Work the chicken repair (4 min)
Build twelve groups of two counters and count by twos. Write 2 × 12 = 24, then write the answer as a sentence about the family's chickens.
Word preview: times

Three levels

Support: Work the chicken repair only, and build it as twelve groups of two so the total comes out of a skip count by twos rather than a fact you have to know. The reading stays whole, because finding both numbers in that sentence is the part of this lesson worth keeping.
At Grade: Work all three repairs, write the equation before the answer sentence, and check the two repairs the book answers against its own lines.
Extension: Say what the book fixes and what it leaves unfixed. You can work out that the family now has twenty-four chickens; nothing in the story says how many they had before the mischief. Tell your partner which number your equation settles, and write the one sentence the book would have to add for the earlier number to be worked out at all.

English learners

The computation travels; the sentence around it does not. "Lost all but two of their chickens" is the hard English here, because it names what remains rather than what is gone, and a student who reads it as "lost two" will multiply the wrong number and be right about everything else they do. Read the clause aloud twice and act it out with counters, putting down a flock and sweeping away all but two, then drill a sentence naming what they still have, what Peter multiplies by, and what they have now. Students may work the count and talk it through in their home language, then give the answer sentence in English.

Materials

Repair cards, one set of three per pair
Round counters, 60 per pair
Small whiteboard and marker, one per student
Ten-sticks (bundles of ten), 12 per pair
Word cards: multiplied, times

Workbook

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

Repair Cards card set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Peter's Repairs: How Many Appear?

Repair Cards

Cut the three cards apart. Work one card at a time.

Repair 1: the chickens

He multiplied by twelve to help a family who had lost all but two of their chickens.

Read this card twice. Underline the number of chickens the family still has. Ring the number of times Peter multiplies.

Repair 2: the fire

The fire repair: four branches, times ten.

Build it and write the equation before you look at the book's line.

Repair 3: the chairs

He put two chairs in front of Rumpelstiltskin's bed.

Two chairs, times fifty. Build it with ten-sticks and write the equation, then check the book's line.

Working the Repairs full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Peter's Repairs: How Many Appear?

Working the Repairs

Write the equation for each repair you build. Then finish the sentence about the chickens.

Repair 1: the chickens

____________ × ____________ = ____________

Repair 2: the fire

____________ × ____________ = ____________

Repair 3: the chairs

____________ × ____________ = ____________

The answer sentence

The family still has ____________ chickens.

Peter multiplies by ____________.

Now the family has ____________ chickens.

Word Cards: multiplied, times card set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Peter's Repairs: How Many Appear?

Word Cards

Cut the cards apart on the lines.

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: Peter's Repairs full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Peter's Repairs: How Many Appear?

Teacher Key

Teacher copy. This page is not handed to students.

Expected responses

Repair 1, the chickens: two is underlined, twelve is ringed. 2 × 12 = 24.
Repair 2, the fire: 4 × 10 = 40. The book's line, "He made a fire with the 40 branches that appeared," gives the same forty.
Repair 3, the chairs: 2 × 50 = 100. The book's line, "A wall of 100 chairs blocked the bed," gives the same hundred.
Answer sentence: The family still has 2 chickens. Peter multiplies by 12. Now the family has 24 chickens.

Read for

A close response pulls two out of "lost all but two of their chickens" and multiplies that. A loose response reads the clause as "lost two" and multiplies the wrong number — everything downstream can then be worked correctly and still be wrong, so check the underlined number before the arithmetic. In the answer sentence, look for a count a person could act on, twenty-four chickens, rather than a bare number.

Extension (Above), which produces no separate page

The equation settles what the family has now. Nothing in the story says how many chickens they had before the mischief, so a strong answer names the missing sentence the book would have to add.

Standards & curriculum

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

4. Times a Zero: Arguing the Rule from the Mats Reasoning · Multiplying by zero

The rhyme at the end of the book states the rule flatly, and the last pages of the story spend themselves proving it. Students test the rule rather than accept it: they set out three counts the story gives, make zero groups of each, record what is left, then predict a count nobody built and defend the prediction to a partner.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Set out three counts from the story (5 min)
Put four counters on one mat for the pies on the table. Put three on the next for the stones still in the river. Put two on the last for the chairs Peter starts with. Say each count aloud so your partner can check it before anything is multiplied.
Times a zero will leave no one.
2. Make zero groups of each (6 min)
Run the spell on every mat: build zero groups of that count, which means no groups at all, and count what is left on the table. Write 4 × 0 = 0, 3 × 0 = 0 and 2 × 0 = 0 one under the other. Say what all three answers have in common.
Word preview: times
3. Predict one nobody built (5 min)
Peter's chairs end at one hundred. Without touching a counter, write what one hundred times zero gives and be ready to say how you knew. Then your partner writes any number they like and you predict that one too.
Word preview: none
A wall of 100 chairs blocked the bed.
4. Say the rule and defend it (4 min)
Tell your partner the rule in your own words. Then defend it with the mats. Point at what zero groups looks like and say why the count could not come out as anything else. Your partner's job is to try one number that might break it.
Word preview: none

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Set out three counts from the story (5 min)
Put four counters on one mat for the pies, three on the next for the stones left in the river, and two on the last for the chairs. Say each count aloud and have your partner check it.
Word preview: zero
Times a zero will leave no one.
2. Say the rule and defend it (4 min)
Make zero groups of each count, then tell your partner the rule in your own words and defend it with the mats. Your partner tries one number that might break it.
Word preview: zero, none

Three levels

Support: Work two mats instead of three, the four pies and the three stones, and keep everything else whole: build zero groups of each, count what is left, and write both equations. The prediction is still yours to make; make it about the two chairs, a count small enough to check by hand afterwards if you want to.
At Grade: Run all three mats, write the three equations, predict one hundred times zero without building it, and defend the rule to a partner with a hand on the mats.
Extension: Argue the harder half of the rule. Build zero groups of four and then four groups of zero, so one desk is empty and the other holds four empty mats, and tell your partner why both come to nothing even though the two arrangements look nothing alike.

English learners

Zero is one of the most portable ideas in this lesson: the numeral, the empty mat and the equation say the same thing in any language. What is not portable is the English tangle around it, because none, nothing, no one and zero all point at the same empty mat and only one of them is the number word a student needs when writing. Post the four words together, say each one while pointing at the empty mat, and rehearse the frame "Zero groups of ___ is ___." Let students argue the rule in their strongest language with a partner who shares it, then give the defence in English with a hand on the mats.

Materials

Round counters, 20 per pair
Group mats, five per pair
Small whiteboard and marker, one per student
Word cards: none, times

Workbook

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

Group Mats full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Times a Zero: Arguing the Rule from the Mats

Group Mats

Put one count of counters on each mat you use.

Zero Groups: What Is Left full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Times a Zero: Arguing the Rule from the Mats

Zero Groups: What Is Left

Write one equation for each mat. Then write your prediction without touching a counter.

The mats

____________ × ____________ = ____________

____________ × ____________ = ____________

____________ × ____________ = ____________

Predict without building

100 × 0 = ____________

Your partner's number: ____________ × 0 = ____________

Say it out loud

Zero groups of ____________ is ____________.

Word Cards: times, none, nothing, no one, zero card set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Times a Zero: Arguing the Rule from the Mats

Word Cards

Cut the cards apart on the lines. Post the last four together.

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: Times a Zero full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Times a Zero: Arguing the Rule from the Mats

Teacher Key

Teacher copy. This page is not handed to students.

Expected responses

The three mats: 4 × 0 = 0 (the pies), 3 × 0 = 0 (the stones still in the river), 2 × 0 = 0 (the chairs Peter starts with).
Support: two mats only, 4 × 0 = 0 and 3 × 0 = 0, and the prediction made about the two chairs.
Prediction: 100 × 0 = 0. Any number the partner writes gives 0.
Frame: Zero groups of four is zero, and the same for whatever count the mat holds.

Read for

A close defence points at the mats and says there are no groups to count, so there is nothing to add up whatever the count was. A loose defence says only that the answer is always zero because the rule says so, or predicts correctly for one hundred and hesitates over the partner's number — that is a fact remembered rather than an argument. In writing, accept the numeral 0; none, nothing and no one are the right words for the empty mat but not the number a student writes in the equation.

Extension (Above), which produces no separate page

Zero groups of four leaves an empty desk; four groups of zero leaves four empty mats. A strong answer says both come to nothing because neither arrangement has a single counter to count.

Standards & curriculum

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

5. Spell Cards: Saying the Product Before You Count It Fluency · Multiplication facts within 100

Multiplying gets you to twenty faster than counting does — the book's own claim about speed, and this lesson puts it in students' hands. Four of the story's spells become a small deck, pies times five, branches times ten, stones times nine and chickens times twelve, and students work the deck against a three-second window, sort the facts they simply know from the ones they still count out, rebuild one slow fact with counters, and then race a spoken product against counting the same total object by object.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Warm the fives and tens (4 min)
Chant the fives to twenty and the tens to forty with the deck face up in front of you, turning one card for each number word. Then say the two products the book prints outright, four times five and the four branches at ten each, before any card is timed.
Word preview: times
If you multiply four times five, you will get 20 faster than if you counted.
2. Race the deck (5 min)
Take turns: one of you holds a card up, the other says the product out loud inside three seconds, and the holder checks the number on the back. Cards answered straight away go in one pile, cards that needed counting go in the other. Swap when the deck is through.
Word preview: product
3. Rebuild the slow ones (6 min)
Take the top card off the counting pile and build it with counters, the number of groups the card names and the number in each group the card names. Count it once, put the counters away, say the fact three times without them, and slide the card back into the deck.
Word preview: product, times
4. Beat the count (5 min)
Test the book's claim. One partner counts twenty counters one at a time out loud while the other says four times five is twenty, and the timer runs for both. Do it again with forty counters against four times ten, then tell each other what the second race showed that the first one did not.
Word preview: times
Multiplying is a fast way of counting groups or sets.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Warm the fives and tens (4 min)
Chant the fives to twenty and the tens to forty with the deck face up, turning one card per number word. Then say the two products the book prints outright.
Word preview: times
If you multiply four times five, you will get 20 faster than if you counted.
2. Race the deck (5 min)
Take turns holding a card and saying the product inside three seconds, checking the number on the back. Sort the cards into the ones you knew and the ones you counted, then swap.
Word preview: product

Three levels

Support: Race half the deck, the fives and the tens only, and keep the three-second window exactly as it is. Every card you miss gets built once with counters and goes back in the pile, so the deck in your hands gets easier while the speed you are asked for stays the same.
At Grade: Race the whole deck, sort fast from counted, rebuild the slowest fact once, and run both speed races against the book's claim.
Extension: Once the deck is sorted, put the cards in order from the fact you say fastest to the one that still needs counting, and tell your partner what makes the slow ones slow: the size of the groups, the number of groups, or a count you have not practised. Then predict which card will move up the order first.

English learners

Facts are the most transferable thing in this lesson, because a student who learned the fives in another language already owns them and needs only the English number words, which are worth rehearsing before any timer starts. The card's phrasing is the risk: "stones times nine" names the thing first and the number of times second, which is the reverse of some students' first language, so a card can be read backwards and still give the right product until the two numbers differ. Say each card as a full frame, "___ times ___ is ___", before racing it, and let a student count in their strongest language during the rebuild step.

Materials

Spell cards, one deck of four per pair
Round counters, 60 per pair
Timer or clock with a second hand, one per pair
Word cards: product, times

Workbook

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

Spell Cards: the Fives and the Tens Support card set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Spell Cards: Saying the Product Before You Count It

Spell Cards: the Fives and the Tens

Cut out each card. Fold on the dotted line so the product sits on the back.

Word Cards: product, times card set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Spell Cards: Saying the Product Before You Count It

Word Cards

Cut the cards apart on the lines.

Saying a Card as a Full Frame strip set

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Spell Cards: Saying the Product Before You Count It

Saying a Card as a Full Frame

Hold the card and say the whole frame out loud before the timer starts.

Strip 1

____________ times ____________ is ____________.

Strip 2

____________ times ____________ is ____________.

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class

Teacher Key: Spell Cards full page

Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin — Spell Cards: Saying the Product Before You Count It

Teacher Key

Teacher copy. This page is not handed to students.

Products printed on the backs of the two cards supplied

4 × 5 (pies) is 20.
4 × 10 (branches) is 40.

Expected responses — the frame

Four times five is twenty.
Four times ten is forty.

Read for

A close response gives the product inside the three-second window and puts the numbers in the frame in the card's order. A loose response is right but arrives after a visible count on fingers or counters — that card belongs in the counted pile, not the known pile, and the sorting is the point of the step. Listen also for a frame said backwards; with 4 × 5 and 4 × 10 the product still comes out right, so the reversal is only audible in the frame.

Note on the deck

Only the fives and the tens are supplied. The stones and chickens cards need a first factor this lesson does not state.

One or more pages for this lesson were held back. The lesson names a set larger than it spells out — a deck of cards, a row of strips — and the missing items were not invented to fill it.

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. Times or Plus: One Word Decides What the River Gets Integrated · Students build both results of a single word change, stepping stones times nine and stepping stones plus nine, and use the boy's own count to say which sentence puts the river back.

Students build both results of a single word change, stepping stones times nine and stepping stones plus nine, and use the boy's own count to say which sentence puts the river back.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Set out the river as the boy describes it (4 min)
Listen to the boy's two lines and put three counters in a row for the stones still in the water. Say how many stones he says there were and how many are left, then say which of those two numbers the spell has to start from.
2. Run the sentence both ways (5 min)
Build the book's sentence across the top of your mat: three groups with nine counters in each, counted by nines to twenty-seven. Build the swapped sentence underneath it: three counters and nine more, counted to twelve. Leave both arrangements where your partner can see them at once.
3. Say which sentence puts the river back (5 min)
Point at each arrangement and say its count out loud. Then say the sentence that settles it, using the boy's number: the boy counts twenty-seven, so the spell has to be the one that makes twenty-seven. Your partner has to hear that number in your answer or ask you again.
4. Swap a word in the chicken sentence (6 min)
Read the chicken repair on your card. Work its product with counters and write it down. Then cross out all but and read the sentence again: say how many chickens you now have in your hands, and say what you can no longer work out. Write one line telling Peter which version of the sentence he can actually fix.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Set out the river as the boy describes it (4 min)
Listen to the boy's two lines and put three counters in a row for the stones still in the water. Say how many stones he says there were and how many are left, then say which of those two numbers the spell has to start from.
2. Run the sentence both ways (5 min)
Build the book's sentence across the top of your mat: three groups with nine counters in each, counted by nines to twenty-seven. Build the swapped sentence underneath it: three counters and nine more, counted to twelve. Leave both arrangements where your partner can see them at once.

Three levels

Support: Keep both builds, which are the point of the lesson, and bring the reading down to one scene: work the river only, with the boy's two lines reread aloud while you point at your rows. Build times and then plus, and say the two counts. The chicken sentence waits for another day.
At grade: Build both river results, say the decision sentence with the boy's number inside it, then work the chicken sentence and write the line to Peter.
Extension: Take the swap the other way. Write the sentence that would have been needed if the boy had said nine stones were left instead of three, and prove your number with counters. Then tell your partner why the word stayed the same while the number had to move, and what that says about which part of the spell the word is in charge of.

English learners

The arithmetic is portable and the word is not. Times has no everyday sense underneath it, and plus may be the more familiar of the two for a student schooled elsewhere, where the symbol × is read with a word from their first language. Put both words on cards, attach each card to its arrangement on the mat, and rehearse one frame with a hand on each: "Times makes ___. Plus makes ___." All but two deserves its own rehearsal, acted out with counters by putting down a flock and sweeping away all but two, because its English says the opposite of what its parts suggest. Let students argue which arrangement is right in their strongest language before giving the decision sentence in English.

Materials

Round counters, 40 per pair
Two-part mats, one per pair
Repair card with the chicken sentence, one per pair
Lined strip and pencil, one per student
The boy's two lines, printed large
The spell sentence with the swapped word beside it

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.

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.

7. Put the Pies Back in Order Integrated · Students restore six event cards to the book's order and produce the count on the table after each one, then move the gobbling card and watch the arithmetic stop matching the book.

Students restore six event cards to the book's order and produce the count on the table after each one, then move the gobbling card and watch the arithmetic stop matching the book.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Sort the six cards into the book's order (4 min)
Spread the six event cards face up, read them, and lay them left to right in the order the scene happened. Leave the counters alone for now; argue the order from the words and say your reason out loud as you place each card.
2. Run the count under every card (5 min)
Put counters under each card showing how many pies are on the table after that event: two, then ten, then what is left after six are eaten, then what the spell makes, then what is left after eight are eaten. Say each count aloud as you build it, and if a pile cannot be made from the pile before it, move a card.
3. Move the gobbling card and watch it break (6 min)
Slide the gobbling card to the far side of the spell card and run the count again from ten, writing each number instead of building it: ten times five, then six eaten. Say the number you land on, and say what the book says instead.
4. Retell the scene in order with the counts (5 min)
Put the cards back in the book's order and retell the scene to a partner from the cards alone, saying the count after every event. Your partner listens for one thing: that every count you say could have been made out of the count before it.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Sort the six cards into the book's order (4 min)
Spread the six event cards face up, read them, and lay them left to right in the order the scene happened. Leave the counters alone for now; argue the order from the words and say your reason out loud as you place each card.
2. Run the count under every card (5 min)
Put counters under each card showing how many pies are on the table after that event: two, then ten, then what is left after six are eaten, then what the spell makes, then what is left after eight are eaten. Say each count aloud as you build it, and if a pile cannot be made from the pile before it, move a card.

Three levels

Support: Work four cards instead of six, the two pies, the ten on the table, the gobbling and the spell, and keep every count in counters rather than in writing. The ordering argument stays yours; the chain is short enough that the count never has to leave the table.
At grade: Order all six cards, build the count under each one, run the broken order in writing, and retell the scene with the counts.
Extension: Take a second card and try to prove it cannot move either, using numbers rather than the story. Then tell your partner whether any two cards in this scene could trade places without the count changing, and how you know that from the piles rather than from the plot.

English learners

Sequencing words carry the whole task here, then and after and before and next, and those are exactly the words a new English speaker is still assembling while the arithmetic underneath is already available. Give the frame on a strip and rehearse it with the cards in hand: "First ___. Then ___, so now there are ___." Let students lay the cards and build the piles first, in silence if they prefer, and reason about the order in their strongest language with a partner who shares it; the English retelling comes once the piles agree. The one phrase worth pre-teaching is gobbled six of the pies, because the number is what matters and the verb hides it.

Materials

Pie event cards, one set of six per pair
Round counters, 40 per pair
Small whiteboard and marker, one per pair
The pie scene sentences, printed large

Standards & curriculum

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

IB PYP developmental alignment

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. All but Two: Finding the Number the Book Never Says Integrated · Students settle what lost all but two actually leaves, point at the sentences that fix each number, and compute the flock the book walks straight past.

Students settle what lost all but two actually leaves, point at the sentences that fix each number, and compute the flock the book walks straight past.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the chicken sentence twice and settle what two means (5 min)
Listen to the sentence twice, then tell your partner how many chickens are standing on that farm right now. If the two of you disagree, read the words all but aloud again and act it out with counters: put down a flock, sweep away all but two, and say what is left.
2. Point at the sentences that fix the numbers (4 min)
On your evidence card, put one finger on the words telling you how many chickens are there and another on the words telling you how many times Peter multiplies. Read each one aloud to your partner before any counting starts.
3. Build the flock and say the number (5 min)
Build the repair: twelve groups of two counters. Count by twos across the groups and say the number out loud, then write 2 × 12 = 24 under your groups.
4. Write the answer with the line that funds it (6 min)
Write one sentence a person could act on: how many chickens the family has now, and the words from the book that told you which number to start from. A number with no line, or a line with no number, comes back to you for its missing half.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Point at the sentences that fix the numbers (4 min)
On your evidence card, put one finger on the words telling you how many chickens are there and another on the words telling you how many times Peter multiplies. Read each one aloud to your partner before any counting starts.
2. Build the flock and say the number (5 min)
Build the repair: twelve groups of two counters. Count by twos across the groups and say the number out loud, then write 2 × 12 = 24 under your groups.

Three levels

Support: Keep the reading whole, since deciding what all but two leaves is the point of the lesson, and build the repair as twelve groups of two so the total comes out of a skip count by twos rather than a fact you have to know. The evidence card stays in your hand while you write.
At grade: Settle the clause, point at both evidence lines and read them aloud, build and count the flock, and write the answer sentence with the words it rests on.
Extension: Take the sentence about the seamstress and her spools and say exactly why it cannot be answered the way the chicken sentence was. Name the number that is missing, and write the one sentence the book would have to add before anyone could work the answer out.

English learners

The arithmetic is the accessible half and should be attempted first, because a student can build twelve groups of two before untangling any English. The obstacle is one clause: lost all but two is an exception structure, and languages mark exceptions in sharply different ways, so a reader who takes lost as the operative word will multiply two lost chickens by twelve and be wrong for reasons that have nothing to do with number. Act the clause out with counters, put all but on a card beside the swept-away flock, and rehearse "They still have ___." Let students say what the sentence means in their strongest language first, then give the count and the answer sentence in English.

Materials

Round counters, 30 per pair
Evidence card with the chicken sentence, one per pair
Answer strip, one per student
Pencil, one per student
The chicken sentence, printed large
The pie spell sentence, printed large

Standards & curriculum

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

IB PYP developmental alignment

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. What Peter Does When Nothing Works Reasoning · Infer a character's trait and motive from what the character does

The book never tells a reader what Peter is like; it shows him failing three times in a row and then looking harder at the stick, and later stealing that stick from a sleeping man with a feather and a swapped broom. Students collect the actions the sentences actually print, name a trait from them, and finish a spoken because-sentence that states what Peter wants. The whole lesson stays inside two printed spans, so a teacher who has never read the book can run it.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the four tries and mark each one (6 min)
Read the passage aloud once with a partner, one sentence each. Then read it again and put your finger on every separate thing Peter tries: the squeaky voice, the waving, the close look at the stick. Say each try aloud in the order the passage prints it, ending with the look at the stick. Nobody explains Peter here, so the tries are all the evidence you get.
Word preview: mimicking, examined
Nothing happened. He tried again, this time mimicking Rumpelstiltskin's squeaky voice. The four pies just sat there. Then he tried waving the stick like Rumpelstiltskin did. Still, the number of pies did not change. Peter examined the stick carefully. This X carved into the end might mean something.
2. Name the trait the tries show (5 min)
Write one sentence that names what kind of person Peter is, using a word like stubborn, patient, or careful. Underneath it, copy the one sentence from the passage that made you pick that word. Trade papers with a partner and check that their copied sentence really shows the trait they named.
Word preview: stubborn
Nothing happened. He tried again, this time mimicking Rumpelstiltskin's squeaky voice. The four pies just sat there. Then he tried waving the stick like Rumpelstiltskin did. Still, the number of pies did not change. Peter examined the stick carefully. This X carved into the end might mean something.
3. Watch the same boy steal the stick (5 min)
Read this second passage, where Peter is asleep-quiet and working close to a dangerous man. Point to the two things he does with his hands, and say which one shows he planned ahead. The book never says Peter is clever, so decide it from the feather and the broom.
Word preview: plucked, flicked
It wouldn't budge. Peter plucked a feather from Rumpel Stiltskins cap and flicked it under the sleeping man's nose. Rumpel Stiltskins let go of the stick to brush the feather away. Peter grabbed the stick and put the broom in its place.
4. Say the motive out loud in one sentence (4 min)
Stand with a partner and finish this frame out loud: Peter keeps trying because he wants to. Use the passages, not a guess, and name the thing he wants. Say the whole sentence twice so it comes out smoothly the second time.
Word preview: motive
It wouldn't budge. Peter plucked a feather from Rumpel Stiltskins cap and flicked it under the sleeping man's nose. Rumpel Stiltskins let go of the stick to brush the feather away. Peter grabbed the stick and put the broom in its place.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read the four tries and mark each one (5 min)
Read the passage aloud once with a partner. Put your finger on every separate thing Peter tries and say each one aloud in the order the passage prints it.
Word preview: mimicking, examined
Nothing happened. He tried again, this time mimicking Rumpelstiltskin's squeaky voice. The four pies just sat there. Then he tried waving the stick like Rumpelstiltskin did. Still, the number of pies did not change. Peter examined the stick carefully. This X carved into the end might mean something.
2. Name the trait the tries show (4 min)
Write one sentence naming what kind of person Peter is, then copy the sentence from the passage that made you pick that word.
Word preview: stubborn
Nothing happened. He tried again, this time mimicking Rumpelstiltskin's squeaky voice. The four pies just sat there. Then he tried waving the stick like Rumpelstiltskin did. Still, the number of pies did not change. Peter examined the stick carefully. This X carved into the end might mean something.

Three levels

Support: Work only with the first passage and only with the trait word stubborn. Point to each try as the passage is read aloud to you, then copy the one sentence that shows Peter trying again after failing. One sentence of evidence is enough.
At Grade: Name a trait from the first passage and a second trait from the feather passage, each with its own copied sentence, then say the because-sentence aloud without reading it off the page.
Extension: Argue for a trait word your partner did not choose and defend it from a sentence they skipped. Then say what the passages do NOT tell you about Peter, and how you know that is missing rather than hidden.

English learners

Trait words for people transfer straight across languages, but English piles the evidence sentence after the claim while many languages put it first, so let students say the evidence sentence first and then the claim if that is more comfortable, and accept both orders. Rehearse the frame Peter keeps trying because he wants ___ chorally three times before anyone says it to a partner. Students may name the trait in their strongest language first and then find the closest English word on the word cards.

Materials

Printed passage: Peter tries the stick
Pencils
Trait-and-evidence half sheet
Printed passage: the feather and the broom
Motive sentence frame strip
Word cards: mimicking, examined, stubborn, plucked, flicked, motive

Standards & curriculum

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

10. First, Next, Then, Finally: How Peter Got the Stick Application · Retell a short sequence of events in the order the text gives them

The stick theft is four physical moves printed in strict order and containing no time-order words at all, which makes it an unusually clean retelling text: students must supply first, next, then and finally themselves rather than copy them. Students strip-sort the moves, add the order words, retell without the page while a partner checks against the print, and then extend the retelling by one printed passage. No student computes anything; the work is holding an order and saying it.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Cut the theft into its four moves (6 min)
Read the passage twice, then cut the sentence strips apart and lay them face up in a row. Put them back into the order the passage prints, saying each move aloud as you place it. Check your row against the printed passage word by word before you glue anything.
Word preview: budge, plucked
It wouldn't budge. Peter plucked a feather from Rumpel Stiltskins cap and flicked it under the sleeping man's nose. Rumpel Stiltskins let go of the stick to brush the feather away. Peter grabbed the stick and put the broom in its place.
2. Add the time-order words yourself (5 min)
The passage does not print first, next, then, or finally, so you supply them. Write one of those four words in front of each move on your glued row. Read your row aloud with the new words and listen for whether it now sounds like a retelling instead of a list.
Word preview: finally
It wouldn't budge. Peter plucked a feather from Rumpel Stiltskins cap and flicked it under the sleeping man's nose. Rumpel Stiltskins let go of the stick to brush the feather away. Peter grabbed the stick and put the broom in its place.
3. Retell it to a partner without the strips (5 min)
Turn your row face down and retell the theft to a partner in four sentences using your time-order words. Your partner holds the printed passage and stops you if you add something the book never says. Swap and do it again.
Word preview: retell
It wouldn't budge. Peter plucked a feather from Rumpel Stiltskins cap and flicked it under the sleeping man's nose. Rumpel Stiltskins let go of the stick to brush the feather away. Peter grabbed the stick and put the broom in its place.
4. Stretch the retelling past the hut door (4 min)
Read the short passage that comes after the theft and add it as a fifth move to your spoken retelling. Say where Peter goes and what stops him on the way. Keep the same time-order words so the whole retelling still runs in one order.
Word preview: calling
Peter backed out of the hut and ran into the forest. The sun was rising as Peter headed for the castle. On the way, he heard a voice calling.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Cut the theft into its four moves (5 min)
Read the passage twice, cut the sentence strips apart, and lay them in the order the passage prints them, saying each move aloud as you place it.
Word preview: budge, plucked
It wouldn't budge. Peter plucked a feather from Rumpel Stiltskins cap and flicked it under the sleeping man's nose. Rumpel Stiltskins let go of the stick to brush the feather away. Peter grabbed the stick and put the broom in its place.
2. Retell it to a partner without the strips (4 min)
Turn your row face down and retell the theft to a partner in four sentences. Your partner holds the printed passage and stops you if you add something the book never says.
Word preview: retell
It wouldn't budge. Peter plucked a feather from Rumpel Stiltskins cap and flicked it under the sleeping man's nose. Rumpel Stiltskins let go of the stick to brush the feather away. Peter grabbed the stick and put the broom in its place.

Three levels

Support: Use three strips instead of four: leave out the sentence It wouldn't budge and start at the feather. Retell those three moves with only first, next and finally, keeping the printed passage face up beside you the whole time.
At Grade: Sort all four strips, add all four time-order words, and retell from memory with the passage face down while a partner checks.
Extension: Retell the theft a second time from Rumpel Stiltskins' side, keeping every event in the same order but saying what he felt and noticed. Then say which single move he would not have been able to describe at all, and why the order proves it.

English learners

The four ordering words are the whole load here, so post them and chorus them before any strip is cut; many students will already own an ordering sequence in their strongest language and can map it word for word onto first, next, then, finally. English marks sequence with these front-of-sentence words rather than with verb endings, which is a real difference worth naming out loud. Let a student retell the four moves in their strongest language first and then again in English with the cards in view.

Materials

Printed passage: the feather and the broom
Sentence strips of the theft passage
Glue sticks
Time-order word cards: first, next, then, finally
Printed passage: out of the hut
Word cards: budge, plucked, finally, retell, calling

Standards & curriculum

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

11. What the Gardener's Sentence Tells You About Wailed Concept · Work out an unfamiliar word's meaning from the sentences around it

The garden passage surrounds wailed with everything a reader needs: bugs attacking, leaves being chewed, a gardener watching it happen. Students circle two unfamiliar words, build meanings out of the neighbouring words rather than a dictionary, test one meaning against a second printed scene, and then write a sentence of their own with the word. The swap-it-back-in check is the move students keep; nothing here is a number.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Find the word you cannot skip (5 min)
Read the garden passage aloud in a group of three. Circle wailed and tender on your copy. Say out loud what is happening in the sentence around each circled word, before anyone guesses at the word itself.
Word preview: wailed, tender
As he neared the castle, Peter heard a strange buzzing. Grasshoppers were chewing on every plant in the royal garden. The gardener wailed as the bugs attacked the tender green leaves. Peter pointed the walking stick at the garden.
2. Build the meaning out of the neighbours (6 min)
For wailed, list on your chart every nearby word that tells you how the gardener feels: what the bugs are doing, what is happening to the garden. Then write a meaning for wailed in your own words, and check it by reading the sentence back with your meaning swapped in. Do the same for tender.
Word preview: clue
As he neared the castle, Peter heard a strange buzzing. Grasshoppers were chewing on every plant in the royal garden. The gardener wailed as the bugs attacked the tender green leaves. Peter pointed the walking stick at the garden.
3. Test the meaning against a second scene (5 min)
Read the earlier passage where the party goes quiet. Decide whether wailed would fit in that scene too, and say why or why not out loud. A meaning that only works in one sentence is not finished yet.
Word preview: gloomy
The celebration continued, but no one laughed or smiled. Even Peter's puppy seemed to know that something was wrong.
4. Write the sentence that proves it (4 min)
Write one new sentence of your own that uses wailed correctly, about anything at all. Underneath, copy the sentence from the passage that taught you the word. Read both aloud to a partner, who says which one is yours.
Word preview: proof
As he neared the castle, Peter heard a strange buzzing. Grasshoppers were chewing on every plant in the royal garden. The gardener wailed as the bugs attacked the tender green leaves. Peter pointed the walking stick at the garden.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Find the word you cannot skip (4 min)
Read the garden passage aloud in a group of three and circle wailed and tender. Say what is happening around each circled word before guessing at the word.
Word preview: wailed, tender
As he neared the castle, Peter heard a strange buzzing. Grasshoppers were chewing on every plant in the royal garden. The gardener wailed as the bugs attacked the tender green leaves. Peter pointed the walking stick at the garden.
2. Build the meaning out of the neighbours (5 min)
List the nearby words that tell you how the gardener feels, write a meaning for wailed in your own words, and check it by reading the sentence back with your meaning swapped in.
Word preview: clue
As he neared the castle, Peter heard a strange buzzing. Grasshoppers were chewing on every plant in the royal garden. The gardener wailed as the bugs attacked the tender green leaves. Peter pointed the walking stick at the garden.

Three levels

Support: Work on wailed alone and leave tender for another day. Use the chart with the neighbour words already listed for you, and choose your meaning from two given options by reading each one back into the sentence and hearing which one fits.
At Grade: Build meanings for both circled words from the neighbours you find yourself, and test each one by swapping it back into the printed sentence.
Extension: Explain why the book chose wailed instead of cried, using what the rest of the passage shows about how bad the garden damage is. Then find one other word in the passage whose meaning you could rebuild the same way, and show the neighbours that would do it.

English learners

Cognates carry a long way here: a student whose strongest language is Spanish may already own tierno for tender, and naming that out loud is faster than any definition. The swap-it-back-in test works in every language, so demonstrate it once in English and invite students to run it in their strongest language on the same sentence. Rehearse the frame I think ___ means ___ because the sentence says ___ before partners talk.

Materials

Printed passage: the royal garden
Coloured pencils
Context-clue chart
Printed passage: the quiet celebration
Word cards: wailed, tender, clue, gloomy, proof

Standards & curriculum

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

12. The Question and the Because Concept · Identify how an explanatory passage poses a question and answers it with because

The book's closing pages switch out of story and into explaining, and they do it with a visible two-part move: a why question, then a sentence that opens with Because. Students box the question, underline the signal word, join the pair aloud, then set the explaining voice beside a narrative passage from the same book and name one difference. They finish by writing a question-and-because pair of their own. Students describe how the passage is built; they do not work its arithmetic.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the explaining pages and find the question (5 min)
Read the passage aloud twice. Find the one sentence that is a question and put a box around it. Say out loud what changes in your voice when you read a question, and read it again so the whole group hears the lift at the end.
Word preview: explain
Multiplying is a fast way of counting groups or sets. If you multiply four times five, you will get 20 faster than if you counted. So why does multiplying by a fraction make a smaller number? Because a fraction describes a piece.
2. Find the sentence that answers it (5 min)
The answer comes right after the question and begins with one signal word. Underline that word and read the answer sentence aloud. Then say the question and answer together as one long sentence, joining them with because.
Word preview: because
Multiplying is a fast way of counting groups or sets. If you multiply four times five, you will get 20 faster than if you counted. So why does multiplying by a fraction make a smaller number? Because a fraction describes a piece.
3. Compare it with how the story tells you things (5 min)
Read the story passage where the kingdom celebrates. Say aloud one way it sounds different from the explaining pages: who is doing something, and whether anything is being explained. Write your one difference on the comparison chart.
Word preview: compare
That night, the whole kingdom celebrated. Peter fixed all the bad things Rumpel Stiltskin had done. Peter multiplied by whole numbers to bring back the people, animals, and objects that had disappeared. He multiplied by fractions to get rid of all the extra insects and other pests. When everything was the way it should be, Peter hid the stick where no one would find it.
4. Write your own question-and-because pair (5 min)
Write a why question about anything in this book, then write your own answer sentence starting with Because. Read the pair aloud to a partner and check that the answer really answers the question you asked.
Word preview: question
Multiplying is a fast way of counting groups or sets. If you multiply four times five, you will get 20 faster than if you counted. So why does multiplying by a fraction make a smaller number? Because a fraction describes a piece.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read the explaining pages and find the question (4 min)
Read the passage aloud twice, box the one sentence that is a question, and read it again so the group hears the lift at the end.
Word preview: explain
Multiplying is a fast way of counting groups or sets. If you multiply four times five, you will get 20 faster than if you counted. So why does multiplying by a fraction make a smaller number? Because a fraction describes a piece.
2. Find the sentence that answers it (5 min)
Underline the signal word that begins the answer sentence, read the answer aloud, then say question and answer together as one sentence joined with because.
Word preview: because
Multiplying is a fast way of counting groups or sets. If you multiply four times five, you will get 20 faster than if you counted. So why does multiplying by a fraction make a smaller number? Because a fraction describes a piece.

Three levels

Support: Stay with the first two steps and the boxed question alone. Read the question and the Because sentence aloud as a pair three times with a partner until the join sounds ordinary, then copy just those two sentences.
At Grade: Box the question, underline Because, join the pair aloud, and write your own question-and-because pair about the book.
Extension: Rewrite the explaining passage's question as a statement and say what the passage loses when the question goes. Then find where the story passage could have used a because sentence and does not, and say what the author gained by leaving it out.

English learners

Because-clauses exist in every language a student brings, but the order differs: some languages put the reason before the result, and English here puts the question first and the reason second. Name that out loud rather than correcting it. Rehearse the joined frame Multiplying by a fraction makes a smaller number because ___ chorally before partners write, and let students draft their own why question in their strongest language before writing it in English.

Materials

Printed passage: the explaining pages
Pencils
Printed passage: the kingdom celebrates
Question-and-because comparison chart
Word cards: explain, because, compare, question

Standards & curriculum

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

13. Ten Years Later: This Book and the Old Tale Reasoning · Compare a sequel with the traditional tale it continues, using printed evidence for each claim

This story is a sequel, and it says so in one printed line: the little man tells the queen she said his name ten years ago and threatens to make her say it again. That single sentence is the hinge between the tale students already carry and the book in front of them. Students pour out what they know, read the passage, and then are held to a rule that every same-or-new claim must point at a printed line. Comparing versions of a tale is language work end to end.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Tell what you already know about the old tale (5 min)
In a group of four, say aloud everything you already know about the old Rumpelstiltskin story: the straw, the gold, the baby, the guessing of the name. One person writes each thing your group is sure about on the What We Know side of the chart. Do not open a book yet; this is what you carry in already.
Word preview: tale, traditional
2. Read what this book says about the name (5 min)
Read the passage aloud. Find the sentence where the little man talks about a name, and read it a second time. On the What This Book Says side of your chart, write what this passage tells you happened ten years before the story you are reading.
Word preview: squeaky
There stood a strange little man who said to him in a high squeaky voice, I have come for you! Go away, the queen gasped. I said your name ten years ago and I will say it again.
3. Say what is the same and what is new (5 min)
With your group, say aloud one thing this book keeps from the old tale and one thing that is completely new. Point at the line on your chart that proves each one. If your group cannot point at a line, the claim goes back to the What We Know side.
Word preview: sequel
There stood a strange little man who said to him in a high squeaky voice, I have come for you! Go away, the queen gasped. I said your name ten years ago and I will say it again.
4. Compare the two endings out loud (5 min)
Read the passage where the kingdom celebrates. Say aloud how this book gets rid of the little man, and how the old tale you know got rid of him. Finish the frame out loud: In the old tale ___, but in this book ___.
Word preview: ending
That night, the whole kingdom celebrated. Peter fixed all the bad things Rumpel Stiltskin had done. Peter multiplied by whole numbers to bring back the people, animals, and objects that had disappeared. He multiplied by fractions to get rid of all the extra insects and other pests. When everything was the way it should be, Peter hid the stick where no one would find it.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read what this book says about the name (4 min)
Read the passage aloud, find the sentence where the little man talks about a name, and write on your chart what it tells you happened ten years before this story.
Word preview: squeaky
There stood a strange little man who said to him in a high squeaky voice, I have come for you! Go away, the queen gasped. I said your name ten years ago and I will say it again.
2. Say what is the same and what is new (5 min)
Say aloud one thing this book keeps from the old tale and one thing that is completely new, pointing at the line on your chart that proves each one.
Word preview: sequel
There stood a strange little man who said to him in a high squeaky voice, I have come for you! Go away, the queen gasped. I said your name ten years ago and I will say it again.

Three levels

Support: Work with one claim, not two. Say aloud one single thing this book keeps from the old tale, and point at the line in the printed passage that proves it. If you do not know the old tale, listen to two group members tell it before you choose.
At Grade: Fill both sides of the chart, make one same claim and one new claim with a printed line pointed at for each, and say the comparison frame aloud.
Extension: Say what the old tale had to contain for this book's opening line to make sense at all, and name one thing the old tale gives the reader that this book expects you to already have. Then say whether a reader who has never heard of the old tale would be confused, and point at the line that would confuse them.

English learners

Many students will know a Rumpelstiltskin-shaped tale under another name and in another language, and that version counts as knowledge for the What We Know side; invite it explicitly. The comparison frame In the old tale ___, but in this book ___ is the load-bearing structure and should be posted and chorused before groups talk. Students may name the old tale's events in their strongest language and then point at the English line that matches.

Materials

What We Know / What This Book Says chart
Printed passage: the little man arrives
Printed passage: the kingdom celebrates
Comparison sentence frame strip
Word cards: tale, traditional, squeaky, sequel, ending

Standards & curriculum

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