Too-small Tyson by JaNay Brown-Wood

Author:JaNay Brown-Wood [Brown-Wood, JaNay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Exploring the Math

Tyson is too small to do some things, but when his beloved gerbil, Swish, gets lost, he is

determined to come to the rescue. As Tyson looks for just the right combination of tubes

to reach Swish under the bed, he uses proportional thinking. He comes to see that the

smaller the tubes, the more tubes he’ll need to span the distance.

When children explore proportional relationships like Tyson does, they begin to gain

a foundation for concepts important in measurement, fractions, and algebra.

Try This!

Invite children to draw a gerbil play space

made of long, medium, and short tubes. Ask them

how they decided which size tubes to draw.

Encourage substitutions as children build with

blocks of different sizes. For instance, “If you run

out of long blocks, what could you use instead?”

Have children pretend to be a gerbil. Ask,

“Which of Swish’s tubes would you rather run

through: a long green one or a short blue one? Why?”

Point out proportions. Find two or three

smaller items the same size as a larger one.

For example, “Look! Three baby carrots are as

long as this big carrot.”

As children explore how many same-size small items make up a larger one, they are developing

math skills. And, like Tyson, they may find that sometimes being the smallest can be an advantage!

—Folashade Cromwell Solomon, EdD

Associate Professor, Department of Education,

Framingham State University, and Research Scientist, TERC

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