In the children's book, The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins, a mom makes a dozen cookies for her kids. There are two kids, so each kid gets six cookies. Once the cookies are made, the kids get excited because they look and smell great. Yet they still believe that the cookies aren't as good as their grandma's. As the book continues, more and more kids ring the doorbell and the cookies must be divided among all the guests. Finally there are twelve kids, so each kid only gets one cookie. At the end though, the grandma shows up with a full plate of cookies.
This book is an example of input/output. This is because every time a new guest shows up, there is a new input. At first, it is twelve divided by two because there are twelve cookies and two kids. As the story continues, though, the input increases. Every time the input increases, the output decreases until finally the output is one because there are twelve cookies and twelve kids, and twelve divided by twelve is one.
The Doorbell Rang is an easy way to teach kids math because it uses a very relatable example. All kids love cookies and it lays out a real life example of how kids could use math to share. Also, the example is easy to follow. By slowly increasing the number of guests, it allows kids to see the pattern of division and how as the input increases, the output decreases.
Good job in the connection you made in this story to input and output rather than just simply dividing
ReplyDeleteGreat connection of material to literature. I enjoyed it
ReplyDeleteleah,
ReplyDeletenice selection! this used to be one of my 1st graders' favorite math stories! very creative job of relating this title to concept of input/output. one thing that would have made your explanation a little stronger would have been maybe to include the formula that this relationship would have made or to have shown a table. other than that, though, nice job!
professor little