Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

What is this? A bonus post? Hmmm.

Happy Saturday. Saturdays are reserved for those rare times when I want to say something that has nothing to do with art.

I want to recommend a great book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith called Math Curse. A boy’s teacher, Mrs. Fibonacci, suggests that “you can think of almost everything as a math problem.” When the boy wakes up the next morning, math is all around him. It’s in his morning routine, it’s at lunch, it’s in social studies, English, and P.E. classes. The boy just can’t escape the math curse!

There are references to math concepts that students won’t learn until middle school or high school but they’re subtle. For instance, though the math teacher’s name is Mrs. Fibonacci, it doesn’t matter that a third grader wouldn’t know what the Fibonacci Sequence is. I think this would be a great book to read to upper-elementary-level math students on the first day of class.

There is another book in this series, Science Verse, that I do not recommend for young students. Unlike Math Curse, when reading Science Verse it is important to understand the upper-level science concepts to find enjoyment in the book. If you read Science Verse to elementary school students, you would have to spend a lot of time explaining ideas.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Return to main page.
___________________________
My Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

56140 / 60000 words. 94% done!
One more day to go!

Loara Standish

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you Americans! I’ve neglected the art lately, I know. Everything will go back to normal on Monday, when we move from November into the wonderful, much less stressful, December.

In celebration of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share with you Loara Standish’s sampler. A sampler is a piece of embroidery that women used to make to show how skilled they were with a needle. I, for one, am glad we don’t have to do that anymore! It looks difficult!

Loara Standish was the daughter of Myles Standish. Myles Standish arrived in the New World on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower compact. He then became the Military Captain of the colony at Plymouth.

To stitch her sampler, Loara Standish sat in her doorway where there was plenty of natural light. Remember, the colonists didn’t have electricity. Imagine having to stop working when dusk settled!

I think she did a lovely job.

Enjoy your holiday [or your Thursday : ) ]!

Return to main page.
________________________________
My Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

51167 / 60000 words. 85% done!

I adjusted my goal from 50,000 to 60,000!

NaNoWriMo Winner!

And from the sludge that is her novel, she emerges, just north of the 50,000-word finish line.

She looks around, confused. "What day is it?" she asks.

"Why, it is Tuesday, November 25th."

"November 25th? It isn't time yet. No, no," she mumbles, disappearing back into the sludge. "It isn't time yet."

Yes! I have reached 50,000 words! And look at the pretty winner's badge!

NaNoWriMo

Just had to post my word count today. I wrote more than 5,000 words today which is more than I've ever written on a novel in one day. And I passed 44,000 words. Woo!

Last year at this time I had written only 35,182 words (70%). That's right. I was behind schedule last year on the 22nd. (Though I suppose it's only fair to note that Nov. 22, 2007 was Thanksgiving.)

This year I will finish well before Thanksgiving! 50K by Monday night!

44051 / 50000 words. 88% done!

Happy Birthday, Rene Magritte!

Today is the anniversary of Rene Magritte's birth. Wish him a happy birthday by learning about his life and art, creating your own Magritte masterpiece, or reading Dinner at Magritte's by Michael Garland!