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Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!
Mr. and Mrs. Comfort have arranged tables and chairs to seat 32 people at their family reunion. But the guests have their own ideas for seating. Area and perimeter come alive as the family makes room for everyone. Used in Math By All Means: Area and Perimeter, Grades 5-6.
Hardcover, 40 pages
Published
September 1st 1997
by Scholastic Press
(first published January 1997)
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Main Characters: Mr. Comfort, Mrs. Comfort
Point of View: 3rd person
Setting:The Comfort Family home
Plot: As the Comfort family prepares for a party serving 32 guests, Mrs. Comfort perfectly arranges 8 tables with 4 chairs per table to accomodate the guests. As the guests arrive, Mr. Comfort and the attendees begin shifting the tables to sit closer together, while ignoring Mrs. Comfort's exclamations that the new setups won't work. Everytime more guest arrive, they change the seating to accomodate...more
Point of View: 3rd person
Setting:The Comfort Family home
Plot: As the Comfort family prepares for a party serving 32 guests, Mrs. Comfort perfectly arranges 8 tables with 4 chairs per table to accomodate the guests. As the guests arrive, Mr. Comfort and the attendees begin shifting the tables to sit closer together, while ignoring Mrs. Comfort's exclamations that the new setups won't work. Everytime more guest arrive, they change the seating to accomodate...more
When I was choosing books to read I started to become a little hungry. So, it led me to chose this book, Spaghetti and Meatballs. ( One of my favorite dishes) Anyways, the story was about how Mr and Mrs Comfort decided to have a family reunion. Mr Comfort was famous for his Spaghetti and Meatball dish and decided to start cooking that for everyone. His wife Mrs. Comfort arranged the table. She arranged eight tables and thirty two chairs so there would be enough room for everyone to eat and no on...more
This is a fun, but somewhat frustrating story about a large gathering of family and friends for a meal. The configuration of the tables is set for the size of the group, but various people attempt to change the setup to their own satisfaction, much to the irritation of the matriarch of the family.
We see, as the tables are arranged and rearranged, how many people can sit at the table with each configuration. It's an interesting mathematical problem and we liked computing the changing number of p...more
We see, as the tables are arranged and rearranged, how many people can sit at the table with each configuration. It's an interesting mathematical problem and we liked computing the changing number of p...more
In this book, we learn about area and perimeter. We have this couple who is having a dinner party and the wife knows exactly how she wants to set the tables up. As the guest arrive, tables and chairs are rearranged as she tries to tell them that way will not work. In the end, once all the guest have arrived, the tables and chairs end back up in the same spot. In the classroom, before reading the entire book, you can have students figure out what's the least amount of tables they need or what sea...more
Apr 17, 2012
Jordyn Mcleod
added it
Spaghetti and Meatballs for All is written in a landscape style illustrations that are full-bleed and also bordered. The text is incorporated into the images. I feel children will enjoy the learning aspect of the story because it uses fun concepts and you don't think of it as "doing math". There are multiple different races of people. The illustrations are realistic and the children can relate to the story because this story can actually happen to kids. I thought it was helpful that at the end o...more
In this book, we learn about area and perimeter. We have this couple who is having a dinner party and the wife knows exactly how she wants to set the tables up. As the guest arrive, tables and chairs are rearranged as she tries to tell them that way will not work. In the end, once all the guest have arrived, the tables and chairs end back up in the same spot. In the classroom, before reading the entire book, you can have students figure out what's the least amount of tables they need or what sea...more
Spaghetti and Meatballs for All! By Marilyn Burns is a great book for teaching math. Several topics are covered such as multiplication and geometry, without the student realizing they are learning. The book starts out with Ms. Comfort is planning for her 32 guests. She makes seating plans but when the guests start to arrive they try and change it to better their liking. However, their requests will not work for mathematical reasons. This book would be neat to recreate in the classroom, it would...more
Dec 04, 2010
Lana Clifton
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
childrens-fiction,
math-concepts
Introduce 3rd through 5th grade students to mathematical concepts involving standards of measure, and area and perimeter with this fun read. At the story's beginning, students can contemplate how Mr. Comfort will prepares to feed 32 guests equivalently. By the story's conclusion, Mr. and Mrs. Comfort are trying to keep their guests comfortable by rotating table seats throughout the course of the meal. Display book on overhead projector while reading and have students solve for missing variables...more
I really liked this book because I think it was so funny how Mr. Comfort wouldn't listen to Mrs. Comfort, but in the end everything works out just fine.
Summary: This book is about a man and a woman who are trying to have a family reunion, and 32 people end up coming. As people arrive the man, Mr. Comfort, keeps rearranging seats so that people can sit all together. All the while the woman, Mrs. Comfort, is trying to tell him that it won’t work because she had a specific way to seat everyone. Ev...more
Summary: This book is about a man and a woman who are trying to have a family reunion, and 32 people end up coming. As people arrive the man, Mr. Comfort, keeps rearranging seats so that people can sit all together. All the while the woman, Mrs. Comfort, is trying to tell him that it won’t work because she had a specific way to seat everyone. Ev...more
This is great book for young students who are starting to develop math skills. I like how the story relates to real life situations such as family, and I think students will be respnsive to learning because of this. Multiple math concepts are addressed including geometry, division and addition. The story demonstrates division in a simple strategy students will be able to understand. Overall, a solid story book that effective incorporates math instruction.
This book is teaching children about division and how to divide up things evenly. It teaches children fractions also. The story is about this couple who is trying to arrange table so that everybody can get the same amount of spaghetti and meatball, but no matter what they do it doesn't end up the way it should be. Finally when they are tire of it, they put it back where it was and everything falls into place. Everybody get what they need when put back to normal.
This is a great book to help explore perimeters using real life-scenarios like planning a dinner. In this story, Mrs. Comfort had chosen the most economical way of seating 32 guests. As guests entered, they kept changing her set-up, which changed the number of people that could be seated. Young learners from grades 3 - 5 would enjoy working with the different possibilities of perimeters and how learning about perimeters could affect their own lives.
I like that this book has explanations in the back that will help connect the text with a teacher or parent's lesson about area and perimeter. This book could be the backbone of an entire lesson on the topics. It could allow depth and understanding and because the tables had to be moved several times in the story multiple math problems were created. I would use this text for older students because the text is to long for 1st or 2nd graders.
I would use this book to teach an activity on ow many different ways could we seat 32 people around tables? I will give each student 8 rainbow tiles, 32 centimeter cubes, and a sheet of blank math paper.I will reread the story stopping at each table arrangement. My students will make the arrangements with their manipulatives. After my students have made all of the table arrangements, they will draw the arrangements on the math paper. For each arrangement they have made, they can make a table usi...more
This is a really great book to use to teach math! There are so many different concepts that you can teach using this book. The story is about a couple who is having people over for dinner and she has the tables of four set up in a certain way so that everyone will have a seat. This book can be used to introduce shapes, multiplication, area, perimeter, and more. There are also math teacher ideas and lessons in the back of the book.
This book is a great book to use when implementing a lesson on perimeter and area. The book introduces new mathematical concepts and terms and does a great job using a real-life scenario and relating it back to math. This would be a great book for students in grades 3-5. The illustrations are good, and the story is interactive and engaging. I would definitely use this book for a math lesson that introduces geometry!
Oct 29, 2010
Monalisa Johnson-brown
added it
This is about Mr. and Mrs. Comfort who were hosting a party. Mr. Comfort liked to cook and Mrs. comfort liked the garden. They were hosting a party for a few people. The tables started out seating eight people which was fine until they changed the arrangements to a different setting. As the people came they change the set up and eventually had to go back to the original setting of eight to a table.
Apr 23, 2012
Sheniqua
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
cause-and-effect,
ece-3601,
family,
counting,
addition,
fiction,
math,
division,
read-alouds,
picture-books,
perimeter
Mr. and Mrs. Comfort think it's time to plan a family reunion! They're inviting everyone including Mrs. Comfort's parents and their neighbors! It's up to the Comforts to divide the food evenly among them and all their guests and to make certain everyone has a seat at one of the eight tables. This is a wonderful book to use to discuss division, or the sharing of a quantity(ies), evenly among individuals. It is also great discuss perimeter in the way that the setup of the tables and chairs is cons...more
This book is a great one for introducing area and perimeter to students. The characters in the book use tables to make seating for 32 family members. As the book is read, students would use math tiles to arrange the perfect seating for all 32 members. Great way to assess reading comprehension and problem solving. Students will be able to write their reasoning in their math journals.
I would recommend this book to 3rd-5th grade readers. Although I experienced some confusion while reading it, it would be a good book to introduce geometry. It teaches perimeter and area in a way that students will be able to connect to. In addition to reading the book, I would use several examples and any manipulative if needed, to help foster students' comprehension of this concept.
This would be a great book to read in a classroom, as part of a math lesson. The story is about trying to get everyone seated for dinner, at a big family reunion. All the characters in the story are trying to arrange the tables in different ways, so that everyone can have a seat. You could read this book to your class and then talk about the different options for arranging the tables.
This is a great book to discuss multiplication or division. It shows practical application and examples of arrays (the tables) which have to be arranged and rearranged multiple times. I really like how the tables pose a problem that needs to be solved. I think it wold be fun to arrange the chairs and desks in you class room a different way each day in a week to form different array and go along with the book. You could also make a spaghetti dinner and multiply a recipe to fit the class needs.
This book was enlightening because the literature taught a number of things. It seemed to touch on problem solving through division, and addtion. I also brought out a little piece of geometry as it pertains to area, and finding the perimeter of a table or shape. I would defiantly use this book to teach problem solving, addtion, division and possibly perimeter.
This story was a cute story you could use to teach older grades (4th and 5th) about perimeters. Once again this would be good to read with manipulative to help the students visualize why Mrs. Comfort knew there wouldn't be enough room. It also lets the students use their critical thinking skills, when looking at the pictures and subtracting seating space.
Mr. and Mrs. Comfort plan a family reunion that includes 32 people. They must plan to have enough chairs, tables, and food for everyone, but that doesn't quite turn out how they had planned. This book is great for maybe an older group of children or grade level. It includes addition, multiplication, and division concepts. This book would be great for creating an activity where the students have to plan their own party with table and chairs. They could create a chart and figure out how many of ea...more
This book is great because it really shows how area and perimeter can be used in every day life. This book would make a great center activity where children could use manipulatives such as cut outs of tables and people in order to understand the rearrangements and concept. Students could also come up with their own solutions and explain their reasoning using critical thinking. If possible, this would be a great book to actually act out with the class using real tables and the students as manipul...more
This would be a great book to use as a center. Having to form groups and divide and multiply throughout the story, the students would get to practice lots of math skills as they recreate the seating arrangements with cardboard cut-outs of the tables and chairs. They could also record each step and really analyze the different arrangements to further show their understanding.
This was a relate-able story about sharing a spaghetti dinner with family and friends. It would be good to present lessons on counting and division. Students could be asked why pushing tables together would not work and how many seats were lost or how many more tables they would need in order for it to work that way.
GREAT MATH BOOK! This book is a wonderful introduction to perimeter and area for secondary students. In the past, I have used this text to build a math lesson that focuses on the relationship between area and perimeter. Students answer questions such as "How does a change in the area affect the perimeter? and "Can the area ever equal the perimeter?"
Great read alound for student of the upper grades. Student will enjoy solving problems based around the problems given within the story of the little family that want to throw a family reunion but is having hard time figuring out the seating arrangement when family member insist on sitting next to each other.
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Marilyn Burns is one of today’s most highly respected mathematics educators. Over the course of 40 years, Marilyn has taught children, led inservice sessions, and written a variety of professional development publications for teachers and administrators.
More about Marilyn Burns...
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updated Apr 22, 2012 05:15pm