Professor Little
Applied Precalc
4 November 2014
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar"
1. In Eric Carle’s story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a very hungry caterpillar hatches from it's egg and spends an entire week eating all sorts of foods including a lollipop, strawberries, and a piece of pie. As he eats more and more foods, he also takes bites big enough to put holes in the book!! By the end of the week, the very hungry caterpillar is full enough that he has given himself a stomach ache. He eats a leaf hoping to relieve this stomach ache and then builds a cocoon and sleeps for 2 weeks. After these two weeks have passed, he emerges from the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly.
2. The story line of this book can relate to an algebraic formula in math. For example, if the equation C=fx was equivalent to how big the caterpillar is depending on how much food it ate, C would represent the size of the caterpillar, f would represent the food it ate, and x would represent the amount of found it consumed. So C could equal a unit of weight or size. F could equal a unit of food and the type of food and x could represent how many units of food the caterpillar ate.
3. Literature is an effective way of teaching math because it allows people, children in this situation, to relate a numerical concept to something that is more imaginable or tangible. For example, The Very Hungry Caterpillar allows children to see the caterpillar grow which is creative and presents a mathematical concept at the same time. Overall, word problems and written math problems are more relatable and understandable.
claire,
ReplyDeletethis book was a favorite among my preschool class back in the day. if i ever go back to teaching preschool, i will remember your post and talk about basic algorithms! at first, i was wondering where you were going to go with this story, but you pulled it off! good job!
professor little