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One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Article  in  Teaching Children Mathematics · February 2017

DOI: 10.5951/teacchilmath.23.6.0338

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math by the month J a m e s R us s o and Toby R uss o

One Fish, Two Fish,

Red Fish, Blue Fish
Read the classic Dr. Seuss book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish with

◗ your class, then engage students in mathematics using these related math
problems, which cover a diverse range of key mathematical concepts.

Grades 5–6

Mr. Gump’s 7-hump Wump has 8 feet to support its body and its 7 humps; our 1-hump Wump has only
WEEK 1

4 feet. From doing a bit more research, we learn that a 4-hump Wump has 6 feet, and a 10-hump Wump
has exactly 10 feet. How many feet are needed to support a 13-hump Wump? What about a 25-hump p
Wump? Create a table to help you solve the problem. What patterns do you find? What is the rule?
Use the rule to find the number of feet needed to support a 100-hump Wump.

Poor Ned’s bed is far too small for him. No matter what he does, either his feet or his
WEEK 2

head hang out the end. In fact, exactly one-quarter of Ned’s body always sticks out from
the end of the bed! If Ned’s bed is 120 cm long, how tall is Ned? Ned definitely needs a
new bed. This time, Ned wants to make sure his feet do not even touch the end of the bed.ed.
d’s bed need to be?
He wants his body to cover exactly four-fifths of the length of the bed. How long does Ned’s

The Yop who likes to hop hops from one finger to another, all day and all night. As the Yop hops from the
WEEK 3

left index finger to the right, its hopping follows the path of a perfect circle. How far does the Yop have to hop
if the 2 fingers are 10 cm apart? What if they are 20 cm apart? 50 cm apart? Draw a picture to help you solve
the problem. About how far apart would the 2 fingers have to be for the Yop to hop 2 meters?

You have been invited to play a game of Ring the Gack. The Gack has 4 horns. You have an equal chance of
landing your ring on each of the horns. However, every time you throw a ring, you have only a 50% chance
WEEK 4

of landing on a horn at all. So, on average, every 2nd throw will miss altogether. What are the chances that
the 1st ring you throw will land on horn 1? On horn 2, horn 3, or horn 4? What are the chances your 1st
throw will land on any horn at all? What are the odds that both of your 1st 2 throws will land on horn 2?
What are the odds that 5 consecutive throws will land on any horn? If you threw 40 rings, how many would
you expect to land on horn 4?

James Russo, james.russo@monash.edu (Wilandra Rise Primary School), and Toby Russo, russo.toby.t@edumail.vic.gov.au (Bell Primary
School), are primary school teachers in Victoria, Australia. Their teaching passion revolves around developing engaging games and activities
that extend student thinking. Edited by Lisa Brooks, Lisa.Brooks@ucf.edu, a lecturer in the College of Education and Human Performance
at the University of Central Florida in Orlando; and Samantha Neff, Samantha_neff@scps.k12.fl.us, a K–grade 5 math coach at Highlands
Elementary School in Winter Springs, Florida. Email problem collections for the editors to consider as future Math by the Month columns. See
submission guidelines at http://www.nctm.org/WriteForTCM. Email creative solutions and adapted problems to tcm@nctm.org for potential
publication, noting Readers Exchange in the subject line.

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 Grades 3–4

The young girl must have an incredible amount of skill and strength to balance 10 cats on her head. From
lightest to heaviest, the weight of the 10 cats in kilograms was 2 kg, 4 kg, 6 kg, 8 kg, 10 kg, 12 kg, 14 kg, 16 kg,
WEEK 1

18 kg, and 20 kg. Work out the combined weight of the 10 cats, then work it out another way. Which way was
easier and why? Remember, you do not have to add the numbers in order from left to right. Look for a pattern
to make the addition problem easier. The wooden board that the cats are sitting on weighs exactly 10 kg, and
the girl weighs 30 kg. How many times heavier is the weight of the load the girl is carrying than the girl?

Altogether there are exactly 48 Zeds (count them!), each with a single hair on its head. The story tells
WEEK 2

us that each Zed needs its hair cut once per day. How many haircuts will the hairdresser have to give in a
week? If the hairdresser charges the Zeds $9 per haircut, how much money will he make in a week? If the
hairdresser works for 50 weeks of the year, what is his annual salary? Approximately how many years will the
hairdresser need to work to make one million dollars?

You have been invited to play a game of Ring the Gack. To score a point in the game, you must throw a ring
around 1 of the Gack’s horns. Each time you throw a ring, you have exactly the same chance of scoring a point
WEEK 3

by landing on a horn as you do of missing and not scoring a point. If you threw 20 rings, how many points
would you expect to score? How many points would you expect to score if you threw 100 rings? What about if
you threw 180 rings? 320 rings? On average, how many rings must you throw to score 1 point? Design a game
where someone has the same chance of scoring as they do in Ring the Gack. Then test the game with some of
your friends and see how they do. Did they score as many times as you expected? Why or why not?

The sleepwalking sheep slept and walked all night, from 5:00 in the evening to 11:00 the next morning.
WEEK 4

(These sheep like to sleep!) While sleeping, the sheep walked at a rate of exactly 4 miles per hour (mph),
and they walked all the way from Near to Far. What is the distance from Near to Far? As the story mentions,
you would much prefer to drive a car than to walk. You left Near sometime in the morning and arrived at Far
ADEKVAT/THINKSTOCK (FISH); BENNYB/THINKSTOCK (BED); TRETII2/THINKSTOCK (SHEEP); OLARTY/THINKSTOCK (CAT); NASCHY/THINKSTOCK (CAT'S YELLOW-GREEN HAT)

at exactly the same time as the sheep. If your car traveled at exactly 60 mph, at what time did you leave Near?
ar?

K–Grade 2

Red fish, blue fish, and black fish were swimming along happily in a row, looking for some plankton to
snack on. To stop themselves from getting bored, they kept changing who swam in front, who swam in
WEEK 1

the middle, and who swam at the back. How many different ways could the 3 fish arrange themselves?
To help you, act out the problem with 2 friends. Make some colored fish, then model the problem. The
yellow fish with the little star on its belly decided to join them in their swimming adventure. How many
different ways could the fish arrange themselves now?

Oh me, oh my, what a lot of funny things go by! Some of the things have 2 feet, and some of them have
WEEK 2

4 feet. Some have 6 feet, and some have more. In fact, the only pattern you notice when you look at all those
funny things is that they have the same number of feet on each side of their body. Is it possible for one of
them to have 12 feet? How about 13 feet? Explain your answers. Draw a picture to help you. Is it possible for
on
one of the funny things to have 81 feet? How about 100 feet? What about 1001 feet?

Th cat in the yellow-green hat is incredibly lucky. He has 11 fingers altogether, instead of only
The
10. He has 7 fingers on his right hand and 4 fingers on his left hand. The cat in the yellow-green
WEEK 3

hat has 11 brothers, all of whom also have 11 fingers altogether. Although all the brothers have the
ha
same total number of fingers, they each have different numbers of fingers on their left and right
sa
ha
hands. Draw some of his brothers with their hands and fingers. One of his brothers, the cat in the
purple-orange hat, has 8 fingers on his left hand. How many fingers must he have on his right hand if he has
purple-orang
11 fingers altogether? Make a table to show how many fingers are on each brother’s left and right hands.

Your can opener breaks, so you decide to get a Zans to open your cans. The Zans is great for opening cans
WEEK 4

and is also a very quick learner. On the first day that the Zans is with you, it can open 5 cans. By the 2nd day,
it manages to open 10 cans. By the 3rd day, it can open 15 cans. How many cans do you think it can open on
day 4? What about on day 5? What about on day 14? How about on day 20? Can you keep the pattern going?
How many cans would the Zans open altogether in its 1st week at your house?

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