‘Round the Rug Math:
Adventures in Problem Solving

This link describes the background for the new literacy and mathematics supplementary series designed for pre-kindergarten to grade 2. The series was developed with support of a National Science Foundation Instructional Materials Development grant.

The Contents of the Books in the Series:

Sneeze Builds a Castle

Develops an Understanding of Spatial Relations and Spatial Sense through Block Building for Pre-K to K with Sneeze the Dragon puppet from the Middle Ages.

Teeny Visits Shapeland

Focuses on Shape Attributes: Classifying, Sorting, and Representing 2-d and 3-d Shapes for Pre-K to K with Teeny the Turtle puppet from North America.

Tan and the Shape Changer

Develops an Understanding of Part-Whole Relationships Using Mathematical Puzzles for K-1 with Grandmother Wei Lung, a Chinese Dragon puppet from Ancient China.

Layla Discovers Secret Patterns

Explores Spatial and Number Patterns for K-1 with Arad the Camel puppet from the Bedouin lands.

Froglets Do the Measuring

Focuses on Visual Estimation and Measurement for Grades 1-2 with Coqui the Puerto Rican Frog puppet.

Finding Mathapotamus

Developing Skills in Data Analysis, Graphing, and Mapping for Grades 1-2 with Raifiki the Chameleon puppet from Tanzania.

Meet the Development Team:

A number of faculty and graduate students at Boston College and numerous teachers helped to develop the storytelling and mathematics series over four years.

· The Principal Investigator of the NSF Grant: Beth Casey, Ph.D. (Brown U.) has been in the field of early childhood education and applied developmental psychology for many years, and has conducted research on the relationship between spatial reasoning and mathematical achievement.

· The Senior Researcher: Michael Schiro, D.Ed. (Harvard U.) has been head of the mathematics education program at Boston College, and among other publications, has recently written a book on storytelling and mathematics.

· The Associate Director: Karen Anderson, Ph.D. (Boston College) has had many years experience teaching mathematics in the New York City Public Schools, and is presently head of the early childhood program at Stonehill College.

· The Contributing Teachers: The books have been extensively field-tested by teachers in many urban and suburban, racially, ethnically, and cognitively diverse classrooms in Massachusetts, as well as in Texas, New Mexico (translated into Spanish by the teacher), and the National Science Foundation Employee Child Development Center in Arlington, VA.

· The External Evaluator: For the last two years, Sumru Erkut Ph.D. (Harvard U.) Associate Director at the Centers for Research on Women at Wellesley College, and the external evaluator of the project has been in the process of systematically evaluating the books. The purpose of these studies is to determine the efficacy of the materials for improving young children’s mathematics skills. The results support the effectiveness of storytelling as a medium for teaching mathematical concepts to young children, and the researchers are presently in the process of publishing these findings.

The Series Addresses the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles and Standards (NCTM, 2000) by:

• Encouraging children to develop their “spatial sense” when solving mathematics problems.

• Embracing the “Equity Principle” in promoting mathematical learning for all students.

• Developing mathematics communication skills.

• Emphasizing the development of spatial representational skills through constructing, drawing, diagramming, graphing, and mapping.

• Emphasizing problem-solving and reasoning skills.

• Helping children connect mathematical ideas to one another and to contexts outside of mathematics.

How are the Books Organized?

• Each book in the Mathematical Problem-Solving Adventure Stories Series has a multicultural puppet that brings the children to the mathematics adventure.

• The characters in the stories have adventures in which they encounter mathematical problems.

• Each story is followed by Activities in which the children solve these hands-on mathematical problems, and at the same time help a character in the story out of a difficulty.These experiences facilitate the learning of the key mathematical ideas.

• Additional Supporting and Home Activities are provided to extend, deepen, and individualize the mathematics learning presented in each book, and to help the children make the mathematics connection to their home and community.

• Curriculum Webs are provided which suggest related activities across the early pre-kindergarten / early primary curriculum that can be connected to the mathematics and to the stories.

Click Here to return to the overview of the 'Round the Rug Math series.