Sam and I invented Minglish. I teach him for an hour a week after school and as we only have that short time to build up his skills in both maths and English, I sometimes have to find ways of combining the two in a single piece of work. Minglish is – obviously – a hybrid of maths and English.
Right now, I’m being tasked with teaching him his four times table, improving his reading skills and expanding his vocabulary so that he uses more exciting and adventurous descriptive words in his creative writing. I’ve spent most of today dreaming up a way of combining the ‘three rs’ in a way that should appeal to Sam (inasmuch as the four times table ever could).
Since that leaves me little time for blogging, I thought you might like to join Sam on the adventure I’ve planned for him. Hopefully as, over the next few weeks, he reads the words, finds suitable vocabulary to fill the gaps, answers sums and memorises the numbers, he may make progress in all three targets. Not exactly the style of teaching I’d choose, left to my own devices, but needs must when the National Curriculum drives.
If you’re an educator or parent, feel free to copy or adapt, although a mention of the originator would be kind and obviously passing it off as your own work or making a profit from it would not.
Sam was wandering along the ______________ path, when a _________________ dragon swooped towards him.
“What on earth…?” _____________ Sam.
“I am Foraytes,” the creature ____________. “I have come to help you with a problem you’re having. I have come to teach you your 4 x table.”
Sam groaned ______________. “Thanks, but honestly, please don’t bother.”
Foraytes let out a _______________ shriek and grabbed Sam’s shoulders in his _______________ claws.
“I will teach you, whether or not you choose to learn!” he cried _______________.
“Right, okay, fine,” said Sam ______________. He decided it would be best not to annoy this creature. Miserably, he sat down on the _______________ ground.
“Can you count in twos?” asked Foraytes, settling down in front of Sam.
“Sure – easy,” said Sam, and did so. “___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___.”
“That will do,” said Foraytes ______________. “Now say them again, but this time miss out the 2 and every alternate number.”
This was harder, but Sam had a go: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___.
“Oh!” ____________ Sam. “I just counted in fours, didn’t I?”
“Indeed you did,” ______________ the creature, with a reptilian smile. Then it pointed a wing towards the distance and said something that sounded like ‘Fort Ooze.’
“Huh?” said Sam. “Where?”
Foraytes hopped up and down in ____________. “Say 8,” he shrieked. “When someone says Fort Ooze, you must reply 8. It’s the password.”
“Oh, four twos!” Sam ___________ . “I get it! Yeah – Fort Ooze. Eight.”
“That’s better,” ____________ the creature. “Now go to Fort Ooze and remember the password.”
Sam thanked him and headed in the direction Foraytes was pointing. He didn’t much like the sound of Fort Ooze, but he still wanted to ______________.
“By the way,” Foraytes called after him. “Do you know Fort Ends?”
Sam thought for a moment. “OH, you mean four tens,” he ____________. “It’s ____.”
He heard the flapping of wings as the ______________ creature rose into the sky.
Sam walked ______________ along the path leading to Fort Ooze. Eventually he came to a wide river. The only bridge was broken and had a huge gap in the centre.
There was a rowing boat tied to a post on his side though. Next to it was a tall ______________ box with this notice on it.
|
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| Five Oars.
Insert correct change in the slot. |
|
Sam was getting used to this by now.
“I think it means Five Fours,” he _____________. He took a _____p coin from his pocket and put it in the slot on the box. The door swung open ____________ and Sam grabbed a couple of the oars and started to row across.
He tied the boat up _____________ at the other side and kept walking.
After half an hour or so, he heard something above him. At first he thought it was Foraytes again, but he looked up to see a ____________ dragon who looked much younger and more friendly.
“Hi,” called the small dragon, “Are you Sam? I bet you are. You met my uncle Foraytes, didn’t you?”
Sam managed to nod before the creature carried on, “Thought so. Can you work out how old my uncle is? If you can, I’ll tell you my name. Then you’ll be able to figure out my age, too. Isn’t this fun!”
Sam smiled in a ____________ way. “So your uncle is called Foraytes. That sounds like four eights. So I’m guessing he is ____ years old,” he replied.
The little dragon clapped all of its wings together. “You’re clever! Now guess my age. Go on, go on! My name is Wunfor.”
“Then I think you must be ____ years old,” ____________ Sam.
“Oh you’re VERY clever!” squealed Wunfor. “Tell me all the bits you’ve learned.”
Sam sighed. “OK. I know Wunfor – one four is ____. Two fours, I mean Fort Ooze is ____. Then I found five oars – five fours – was ____, Foraytes – four eights – that’s ____ and Fort Ends, wherever that is, is four tens, which is _____.”
“Fort Ends is quite near here,” Wunfor told him. “Do you want a lift? I could carry you on my back, you know. I’m ___________ strong!”
By now Sam’s legs were aching __________, so he was happy to accept a lift. They flew far above the treetops and the lands below looked like ________________.
“See that place with the four tall pine trees over there?” Wunfor shouted. “It’s called Four Trees.”
“That makes sense,” said Sam. “Is it ____ miles away by any chance?”
“Wow! You’re magic!” _________ the young dragon. How did you know that?”
“Four Trees sounds like four ___s,” grinned Sam.
“Well you’re going to do fine on the rest of the journey if you’re that __________,” Wunfor told Sam. “Here we are now. This is Fort Ends.”
They landed by some ruined stones.
“There was a _________ fort here once,” said Wunfor ___________, “but it ended ____ years ago. You need to keep walking in that direction, Sam. Oh, and if you run into my grumpy Uncle Sevenforce, just shout 28 at him as loud as you can, then he will leave you in peace.”
“What if I forget?” Sam asked _____________.
Wunfor shook his head. “Well you know most dragons breathe fire? He does that with a force seven gale thrown in, so you’d better remember!”
Sam thanked the __________ dragon and hurried down the road. “Sevenforce 28, Sevenforce 28,” he kept muttering under his breath.
He noticed a gate across the road ahead. A very posh looking man stood next to it.
“Hello,” said Sam, _____________. “Please can I go through the gate?”
The man had the poshest accent Sam had ever heard. “Fwar Fwars,” he said.
“Er, sorry?” Sam ___________.
“Fwar Fwars!” repeated the man crossly.
Suddenly Sam understood. “Oh, you mean four fours! That’s ____.”
The man stuck his nose in the air and walked across slowly to open the gate.
“Thanks Mister,” Sam __________ and he carried on along the ___________ road.
By this time Sam was getting hungry and thirsty. He’d been travelling for ages. He saw a small cottage ahead, with brightly coloured chairs and tables outside. There were red umbrellas over each table. ___________ he went and sat down at one.
A smiling waitress appeared almost immediately. “What can I get you, Sir?”
“I’d like a lemonade, please and slice of chocolate cake.” Sam __________.
“Certainly, Sir,” the waitress ___________. “Our lemonade costs six times four pence and the cakes are all nine times four pence. We also have coffee and walnut and lemon drizzle cake.”
“Your prices are very good!” exclaimed Sam, hunting in his pocket for the money. He took out ____ pence for the lemonade and _____ pence for the cake. “I’ll stick with the chocolate cake, thanks. I __________ chocolate.”
“Thank you Sir. I hope you enjoy your rest at the Fourpenny Café.”
Sam had just taken a mouthful of the ____________ chocolate cake when there was a rushing sound behind him and the fiercest dragon you can imagine landed beside him.
Sam was so startled, he sprayed cake crumbs all over the table. “_____” he said, as soon as he had stopped coughing.
“So you’ve heard my name!” __________ the dragon. “Yes, I am Sevenforce. How much is the cake?”
“Er, it’s nine times four pence,” Sam said.
“Which is…?” The dragon’s eyes narrowed _____________.
“____” he replied ___________. And the lemonade was six times four, which is ____.”
“Hmm, not bad,” said Sevenforce. “I may pop back for some later. Right now I have some burning issues to attend to.” And to Sam’s relief, he flew off in another direction.
After his snack, Sam found it was an easy downhill walk to Fort Ooze.
“Password!” shouted a familiar voice.
“___” replied Sam, ___________.
“Well remembered,” smiled Foraytes, peering down at him from one of the battlements. Let’s see what you’ve learned.”
Sam smiled. “I know how old you are, Foraytes. You’re _____. And your nephew Wunfor is ____. You have a scary brother and he’s called _____________. I had to shout ____ to stop myself getting burned by him.”
“Excellent,” Foraytes replied. “How many pence did it cost to hire the five oars?”
“Well I only used 2 of them, but 5 x 4 is ____. And I had to get past that posh bloke who said ‘fwar fwars’ by saying ____. Oh and the cost of lemonade is ___x 4, which is ____ and the cake costs ____ x 4 which is ____.”
“Superb,” __________ the dragon. What places did you see?”
“I got a lift to Fort Ends, which is 4 x 10, which is ____. Oh and we saw Four Trees ____ miles away.”
“Congratulations.” Foraytes bowed before him (32 times). “Here is your prize, young Sam.”
And to Sam’s delight, the dragon gave him four wings, which fitted perfectly, so that he could fly straight home.
This has been puzzling me. Maybe you can help me work it out….
One was called Thomas Edison. He was a smart, hard-headed businessman as well as a brilliant innovator. He needed investors in order to develop his amazing stuff.
The other was called Nikola Tesla. He was clueless with money and no good at working with people but also a brilliant innovator. He too needed investors, for exactly the same reason.
Now let’s imagine an alternative universe in which the investors all went for Tesla’s ideas.
So this is my puzzle:
This feels much better!
Looking at Life 