Divide and Ride

Divide and Ride

By: Stuart J. Murphy

Illustrated by: George Ulrich

Grades: 2-4

A group of students go to a carnival where there are many rides to go on.  Different rides held a different amount of students per chair.  The students have to figure out how many more students they needed to find to fit all their friends and fill the chairs. While students are reading this book, they can work with the students in the book to find the answers.  Students learn math without knowing it!

About the Author:

Stuart J. Murphy started to really enjoy writing when his forth grade teacher told him that he should start to write his stories down.  He ended up attending the Rhode Island School of Design for art.  He became interested in educational text which led him to being on text book committees and working on curriculum.  While working with older students, Murphy found that pictures helped reluctant learners which lead him to think that pictures would help young students with math.  Ultimately, Murphy started to write a collection of math books for children. 

Theme: Students learn about math through real life situations which makes learning math enjoyable.

Pre-Reading Activities:

Ask students: Have you ever been to a carnival?  What kinds of rides have you been on?  Have you had to split up when you go to the carnival with a big group of friends?  How did it turn out?

Turn to a partner and discuss going on rides and how many seats each ride has.  Discuss what you would do if all of your friends did not fit in the seats and there was one friend left without a seat.

Post Reading Activities:

Ask students: Did any of the students get left out on a ride?  What did the students do if one of the seats were not filled?  What did they do when all of the student could fit on the ride but there were still empty seats? 

Have the class all stand up.  Tell them that they are going to be given different numbers and they have to split up into groups of that number. By doing this they will be able to see how many other people they have to find to make sure that each group has the correct amount.