Divide & Ride (Mathstart: Level 3

MathStart: Level 3 #4

by Stuart J. Murphy, George Ulrich (Illustrations)

Scream down the Dare-Devil Coaster and whirl around in the Twin Spin cars! Join in the carnival fun as 11 friends divide up to fit on the 2-to-a-seat roller coaster and the 4-to-a-cup teacups ride. Making new friends and practicing predivision skills have never been so exciting!

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Childrens, Division, 1st Grade, Friendship, Nonfiction

Library Binding

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

PICTURES & WORDS, STORIES & BOOKS
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com

I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.

I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.

I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.

MATHSTART

The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.

The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.

Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )

THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL

Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”

STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN

My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.

I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.

Each book is reviewed by a tea

Reviews

[Rachel Showalter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Divide and Ride is an educational book about 11 friends who go to the carnival. They start to run into issues when the rides they want to ride do not fit the friends equally. Their solution is to add some outside friends. Until, they get to last water ride and have to figure out who will ride with them.
The first literary element of Divide and Ride is setting. The book takes place at a carnival. This is known because the book states on the first page that the friends are having a carnival day. Also, for evidence, all the rides that they ride show they are at some sort of amusement park. The second literary element is point of the view. Divide and Ride is written with an omniscient point of view. This is because there is no specific person that the story is about, it is about all the children at once. For example, the author uses “we” talking about all the children.
The first visual element is the use of double spread. For all of the pages, the illustrations carry on throughout both pages. I feel this is because the information that the author is trying to convey will not fit on both pages and the illustrations help show the text. For example, because the book is teaching a child to divide, when the children are getting on the roller coaster and have one person left over, the author explains how the eleven children can not be divided by 2. The second visual element is bleed. All of the illustrations carry on throughout the whole page. The colors on the page are also very bright, which help may hold the child’s attention. Especially because there is a lesson of math in the book.
The books nonfiction genre is cause and effect. For example, the children are faced with the problem of not having enough children to ride the ride and they have to figure out with they are going to do. This issue is presented on every page of the book.

[Jodi Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be great practice with division. It introduces some terms like "left over" "divide" and "remainder". It also puts the math in a realistic setting (carnival/roller coasters). It's a great change from dividing food.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you think of a carnival, Goodreaders, do you think this? "What a fabulous setting to practice your division!"

As it happens, that turns out to be true. Thank you, Stuart J. Murphy and illustrator George Ulrich for this fascinating, adventurous, educational spin on carnival rides.

Cleverly, eleven "best" friends learn how to divide so they can fill up the seats on each ride.

What incentive to do the math! Here's the example of riding the Satellite Wheel.

* It holds 3 people per chair.
* Each chair must have 3 in order for the group to ride.
* The pals can easily fill three chairs, but 2 friends are left over.

What to do?
Add one more kid to ride along with the friends.

And a friendly FIVE STAR rating is my conclusion, obv.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divide and Ride (Paperback)
by Stuart J. Murphy
the fourth graders i read this book found it more daunting than i thought possible. The simple math seemed to be a struggle, they did not get that there was a remainder and that we did not have complete sets. It is a great intro to the idea that not everything divides evenly especially those pesky odd numbers.

[Annie Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this for my 10yo but it was a little below his level, so I read it to my 5&7yos, along with some other story books illustrating division. The 7yo, who is still just learning his single digit addition started really understanding the concepts of multiplication and division from the story format. This was a cute and fun way to illustrate division and remainders.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

When 11 friends go to the carnival, they have to break up into groups of 2, 3, 4, and 14 to ride the rides. To make things even they add people they meet in the park.

The illustrations are good and there are drawings to show one way to represent the problem (using grid/arrays).

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. It’s ok.

[Gaby Roman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great short story to read to my students when they are learning about odd and even numbers. I would even use this story to teach about division and remainders. An activity I would do my students would be to use manipulative as I was reading to represent the groups of people on the ride. If the groups aren't equal and we need a friend. Then I would discuss how this represents an odd number of people, or I would use this as an opportunity to show what a remainder is to my students. I may change this activity by having my students sit in a chair and act as though they were about to get on a ride. I would have them ask a friend to pair up with them and the rest of the class would be solving the math problem on a piece of paper. I would allow for each child to be able to represent the division problem while I read the story.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful way to introduce the concept of division. Our oldest is just beginning to learn about division and remainders and so this book helps to solidify the lessons she is learning. And our youngest hasn't learned anything about division before, but still this book presents the information in such a way that she completely understood it. I love it! We've really enjoyed reading the books in the various Mathstart series by Stuart J. Murphy and we will certainly look for more at our local library.

[Chanelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great learning about remainders. There are a group of best friends that always go everywhere with one another. They decide to go to an amusement park. They notice that one of their friends doesn't have someone to ride with and they only can ride the ride unless all of the seats are filled. The children have to find a person to fill the spot. Throughout the book, it shows how they figure out them amount of seats and people they need to be able to ride all of the different rides. At the end, they make several new friends to add on their group. You can also use square tiles to show the relationship of the remainder.

[Hailey Dellinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for grade levels 2nd-4th grade to enhance knowledge on practical problems for division. I would use this to introduce division in a lesson. This also incorporates moral lessons like making new friends and resolving conflicts with math problems. This books helps you model ten frames, word problems, and division. This would be a great lesson to incorporate EVERYONE and do realistic problems of division by dividing the whole class with realistic word problems. The students could be the visual aids, and students would tell each other if there was an even number or odd number for the remainder.

[Tasasha Battle]

This book was so cute. It is about a group of children that goes to an amusement park. There are an uneven amount of children and most rides are two sweaters. So the children have to figure out how can everyone ride together in the same cart. They have to thing about dividing everyone and seeing if they need a partner to ride or not. In every instances more friends come that allows for everyone in the group to ride. The fun part comes when students have to figure how many new friends they need to add to fix their mathematical problem.

[Oanh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story would be great to read to kids because they can relate to it. Whether they've been to an amusement park or a fair, this story can show kids that they're "mathematicians" without even realizing it! A group of 11 friends have to figure out how to split themselves among the seats for each ride. This is a great way to introduce division with remainders and it can even be used to touch on even and odd numbers. I think this would make for a cute and exciting math station theme for students, too.

[Sophia Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divide and Ride is a great book for introducing fractions. It goes through a class's day at the amusement park. That in itself captures students' attention. It not only gives the words behind dividing fractions, "We'll need to divide. 2 people fit in each seat," but it also gives a little picture in the corner (with stars) that shows how to divide 11 up by 5, with one friend left over. This, to me, will be great to use in the classroom as an intro to division because the book breaks division down and makes it simple and easy to understand.

[Shakita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Divide and ride is about equal grouping. The children have to put an equal amount on the rides in order to ride. They sometimes have friends left over or not enough friends so they have to call other kids to get on. This book can be used in the classroom and the children can act out the book as it is read aloud.They will see how they have to divide friends and how there will be a friend remaining (remainder) sometimes. This way, students can see the visual.

[Whitney Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would be great to read for upper elementary school grades who are trying to learn and use division processes.
The story tales of a group of friends who are at an amusement park and who join and invite new friends to ride rides with them in order to fit certain criteria.

This book is great for introducing:

Remainder -- extra friend, not enough bodies within the cart
Measurement
Division

Helps student solve for ways to allow the ride to start by placing people on the ride.

[Jennifer Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great short story for students who are earning about division, remainders, even, and odd numbers. It is written in a way that incorporates these math concepts into possible real life situations. This story also touches on friendship because it is about a group of friends who go to an amusement park together. Throughout the book, the students in the story as well as the reader are faced with figuring out how many more friends are needed so that everybody is allowed to ridge the rides.

[Jasmin Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Divide and Ride" is the story of a couple of best friends who go to the amusement park and have to make new friends along the way in order for all of them to ride all the rides. This book is great for teaching students about division, remainders, even, and odd numbers. The story is able to relate to students by creating real life situations where things like this could possibly happen. The students have to figure out how many new friends are needed in order for them to ride the park rides.

[Salima Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute story about children at an amusement park that need to fill up seats correctly in order to ride the rides. I like this book because students can actually use models to show how many children will sit in each seat and have time to work out the problem before finding out the answer. This is a great way to introduce division in the classroom without the trouble of the traditional memorization of facts.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about 11 best friends that go to an amusement park. They have to figure out the best way to split themselves up and ask other people to join so everyone is able to ride the rides. This book focuses on dividing and remainders, also even and odd numbers. I think this is a great book that a class could physically act out; have them line up the chairs like a rollercoaster and have them act out the problems in the book.

[Katie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for division. A group of 11 friends go to to a carnival and have to divide themselves up for each ride. They are normally short by one person so they call over a kid they do not know. By the end of the story they can all ride on one ride and invite the other 3 children they had become friends with to fill up the ride. Each page shows the problem drawn out which is nice!

[Rebecca Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to use for a math lesson on division (making equal groups). I would have the students use manipulatives as I read the book aloud. The students will use the manipulatives to work out the problems in the story. I would discuss what remainders are and ask them how many more they will need to make it equal.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful and amusing book to use when teaching students about division. This book actually has the division problems stated and the students can also tie that to the illustrations in the book. I would use this book and also have my students to do hands on activites while reading the book.

[Seth Lebaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book talks about divison and remanders. This book could be read before doing an activity where students need to fill in slot with objects, like an egg cartoon. You could say it is a train and you need to have two students per seat (egg slot). Find other objects and see what remanders the student can figure out, also work with them with sets of seats like 2, 3, 4.

[Sarah Ziskend · Rating 4 out of 5]

models how to use:
1. Ten frames
2. Word problems
3. Division

Uses cute realistic word problems about being at a carnival to teach how to divide numbers. Also uses remainders, which was a big draw to the book for me. As a teacher of mathematics, i could use this to help teach a variety of math topics, more specifically ten frames, word problems, and division.

[Zilha B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about a group of 11 friends who go on many rides, but they have to have enough people for each ride. These eleven friends have to learn how to divide and call on other people to help fill in the seats. This is a great story for students to learn about division and remainders. Each ride can represent a division problem that students have to solve.

[Enasia Lee]

This is a great book to teach about division. It is a fun way to teach this without being stressed out. It tells about real-life situations that the students can relate to. Students can use manipulatives as well as write the problem down as the story goes on. Also, it teaches about remainders, which some students struggle with.

[Megan Piero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book can be read while students follow along and use manipulatives for a beginners lesson into division and remainders. It's provides a fun, real life example for when students might have to use division in their lives. Although this book was not written for this purpose, I also think this book could be used as a tool to teach students about even and odd numbers.

[Carman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book showcases division by 2, 3, and 4. Examples of division problems with remainders and simple ways to adjust problem and get rid of remainders. Manipulatives could be used in the class for modeling. Great for second and third grade.

[Jayna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A group of friends take a trip to a carnival. While there they realize they need to do alot of dividing in order to ride the rides. With help from others they have a real good time! It is a story with basic division and remainders.