Casey, B., Napoleon, I., Schiro, M., & Anderson, K. (2002). Finding mathapotamus. Chicago, IL: The Wright Group/ McGraw-Hill.

This description of the book is excerpted from the article written by Casey, B., Kersh, J. E., & Mercer Young, J. (2004). Storytelling sagas: An effective medium for teaching early childhood mathematics. Early Childhood Research Quarterly: Special Issue on Mathematics and Science, 19, 167-172.

 
  "Finding Mathapotamus, the last book in the series for grades 1 to 2, develops sorting, data analysis, and graphing skills. This story is set in Tanzania, and is told by a chameleon puppet, named Rafiki. Rafiki meets many wonderful creatures including the Lilypad creatures who paddle him upstream on their lily pad boats. Children start out by sorting Lilypad creature cards into different attributes, and then represent the information on number tables and bar graphs. Consistent with the NCTM standards, the children conduct surveys, and represent the information on graphs in order to tell the characters in the stories about themselves."

 

Comments from the classroom:

"After the lily-pad creatures sang their chant as they marched to the river, I had a parade in the classroom with the children each holding a lily-pad creature card. They lined up and marched around the room. The group in back sang the 'Moo-oove-On' chant while the group in front sang the 'Working Song.' You can have them do a round as well. I also had my students sing the following words to the tune of 'Row, row, row your boat.' We sang, 'Kick, kick, kick your feet, gently up the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, working as a team.'"


 

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From Finding Mathapotamus

 

  

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Here is a Sample Activity for You to Use

 

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