Quality of Numbers: Field Trip for the Number 9

I'm very proud of myself for coming up with such a cool field trip idea for the number 9! Here's what we did today.

First, we read Pezzettino by Leo Lionni. I'm so glad this book is back in print. It's excellent, and just wonderful for the number 9 especially.

Pezzettino
by Leo Lionni

Then the children solved today's riddle, the answer being rock. I spent several hours yesterday evening looking high and low for a rock or stone riddle that I liked and couldn't find one, so I wrote my own.

You can find me in the water
You can find me on the land
I can be too heavy to lift
You can hold me in your hand
Mountains are made of me
And so is the sand

~ rock

After solving the riddle, they continued with our Quality of Numbers container story about Calendula and Plantain, and used the beautiful shell to move the salt and reveal the magic symbols. I made a big deal about how the number for 9 was going to be very surprising... and might give them a hint about the number 10... but they had to keep their guesses to themselves until Monday morning. I'm curious to see if they make the connection between IV (one less than five) and IX (one less than ten).

I explained that the number 9 is special because it is a square number. I have a beautiful piece of square number artwork, made of nine tiles which my students made for me for Christmas several years ago with their art teacher (she wrote a guest blog post with the how-to), and so we got that out and counted the tiles. Yes, there were nine!

I then set out lots of scrap pieces from our collection of beautiful scrapbooking papers, and gave them each a little square block (the smallest pieces from the Grimm's Large Stepped Pyramid). They each chose 9 papers and traced the block once on each paper, giving them 9 squares. On Monday, they will cut out each square and make a collage with the 9 squares making one larger square. Leo Lionni's artwork in Pezzettino inspired this project. Both tracing work and cutting work are really important for six-year-olds.

Then I asked them, do you think every number is a square number?

Our field trip -- which ties in with the idea of rocks and of smaller pieces making up the whole -- was to the stunning Mandala Gardens in Marion IL. The entrance fee is $2.00 per person. I hit upon the idea of having us pay in quarters, so that the children could review the number 8 by counting out their quarters. I gave them their quarters and asked them if they could arrange them into a square. No! Eight is not a square number. They quickly discovered, however, that four is!

Once we had our 8 quarters per person, it was time to head out the door. We had a grand time exploring Mandala Gardens!

Pezzettino falls and breaks into 9 pieces

choosing the beautiful papers

hmmm... not a square number

welcome to Mandala Gardens

even the animal enclosures are beautiful

What a perfect Autumn day!

Thank you, Trish, for reminding me about this amazing local garden!

If you're getting ready to teach the Quality of Numbers block, detailed notes such as these are available for all of the numbers, including stories, riddles, art suggestions, MLB pages, and more hands-on activities to explore each number. Join my new Ruzuku course with others teaching the same block!

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