Life of Fred Math Books Have Unexpected Lessons

For several years, I have been homeschooling my grandson. I am an English teacher who feels less than confident when teaching math, so I was delighted to find the help I needed when I bought the Life of Fred series. He loved them, and it made it so easy to help him learn.

The unexpected bonus I discovered was the clever and humorous life lessons that were included with the math instruction.

Life Of Fred is like no other math program out there. This math book series is known for weaving math concepts into exciting stories about a 5-year-old math genius. The author has tossed in valuable lessons that kids wouldn't typically find in a math textbook.

Many of Fred's readers will say that these books are very fun to read. But why? Here's what one homeschooler says about the books: "Even if the math concepts are a review, your kids will enjoy learning about the zany extras in each book. My son still enjoys saying toenail in German. That’s an additional important life skill if I say so myself. 😉" -Jamerrill S.

It's true that the Fred books are full of unexpected lessons beyond math concepts. Here are a few of our favorite unexpected lessons from the Life of Fred Elementary Math Series.

Unexpected Lesson #1

In the Life of Fred Butterflies book, students will learn linear measurements, time, geometry, and specific numbers! In Chapter Nineteen of Butterflies, “Mysteries of Life,” Fred and his buddy Kingie receive a pizza delivery. Kingie proceeds to chomp down his half of the pizza. (Kingie says he is so hungry because “being an artist is hard work.”) But Fred takes a moment to set the table while the pizza cools off. He shows the reader how to set a table: Placemat goes down first. Then the plate and the napkin. Then the fork on top of the napkin. Knife and spoon on the right with the knife next to the plate. The cup above the knife.


 

One page later, your child receives practice sheets for addition and subtraction!

Unexpected Lesson #2

In the Edgewood book, students work with concurrent lines, the commutative law of addition, touch on quadrilateral shapes, and more! The topics covered in this 128-page book are parallel lines, right angles, functions, quarter of an hour, half dozen, six examples of functions, math poems, the four kinds of sentences, firearm safety, and more! In Chapter Fourteen, “Food and Warmth,” your student reviews how to calculate half of a number, measurement of distance, counting calories in a meal, and the phases of the moon. Fred’s bus breaks down outside of town, and he is determined to run to town to get help. It is 6 p.m., and Fred does not want to run in the dark. “Maybe there will be a full moon, Fred thought. Then there would be enough light to keep on running.”



In the next chapter of Edgewood, Fred explains the meaning of voluntary and involuntary actions. How does he fit all of these lessons together to create a funny math story? You just have to read the book and find out!

Unexpected Lesson #3

In the Honey book, students work on fun math activities with Fred as he goes through fractions, multiplication facts, unit conversions, and more! Perhaps your child hasn’t thought about starting their own business yet, but it’s never too soon to spark the idea to become an entrepreneur. In Chapter Fourteen, “Starting a Business,” Kingie puts on his businessman hat. (Fun Fact: Kingie sells his own art.) Kingie explains the risks of starting your own business. He then goes over the “Checklist for Starting a Business” with Fred. 




At the end of the chapter, the reader is asked to check Fred’s business calculations. Will his business be profitable? Later in the book, Fred continues to follow his dream of becoming an apiarist. (Yes, the book explains what an apiarist is too!)

More about the Life of Fred Elementary Math Series:

Who is it for? Kindergarten to 4th grade

Concepts covered: time, types of numbers, geometry, measurement, facts about stars, morse code, geography, adjectives & verbs, patterns, functions, sheet music, seven wonders of the world, math poems, percents, numbers vs. numerals, division, slope of a line, graphing, notation, the improper use of seat belts, how to prove you are not a duck, reducing fractions, and so much more.

Titles in this series: Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Dogs, Edgewood, Farming, Goldfish, Honey, Ice Cream, Jelly Beans

You will not regret buying these books to use in your homeschool curriculum. After I used them, I resold them on Amazon and got nearly all of my money back.

Disclaimer: If you click on the buy now button and make a purchase, I will receive a small affiliate payment at no extra cost to you.

Thanks for reading.

How to Avoid Six Common Usage Errors

We all make mistakes, and I am certainly not the Internet Police, but after seeing these bloopers online on social media, I thought these 6 common usage mistakes would make a good topic for a post. Here are just a few of some common errors I recently saw on Facebook and Twitter and a little information on how to avoid them.

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“Who remember's this?”

Do not use an apostrophe to make a noun plural.

Correction: Who remembers this?

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 "The dog has a microchip in case she would loose her collar."

Loose means not tight.  Lose means to misplace.

Correction: The dog has a microchip in case she would lose her collar.

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" I laid down for 5 minutes and woke up 2 hours later."

Laid means to put or to place something.

Correction: I lay down for 5 minutes and woke up 2 hours later.

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 “I think that Mom's who watch soap operas are way two dramatic.”

There are two errors in this sentence.

1.  Do not use an apostrophe to make a noun plural.

2.  The word two means the number 2. The word too means to an excessive        degree.

Corrections: I think that moms who watch soap operas are way too dramatic.

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 “I was just laying around feeling sick all week.”

The past progressive form of the verb “lie” is was lying. “Laying” means to put or to place.

Correction: I was just lying around feeling sick all week.

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“George is a very healthful person.”

Healthy and healthful are adjectives that can be used as synonyms for each other unless one is talking about a person. 

Spinach can be a healthy or a healthful vegetable, but when talking about a person, always use “healthy.”

Correction: George is a very healthy person.

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For more practice with apostrophes and verbs, visit my store for some helpful exercises. Some of them are FREE.

This blog post is an updated version of an earlier blog post I wrote.

Thanks for reading,

An Easy Way to Choose Between Who's and Whose

The words who's and whose are often confused and used incorrectly. Learning to use them correctly is pretty simple.

Who's is a contraction for the words who is or who has. The apostrophe is your clue that the word is a contraction. The apostrophe indicates that two words have been combined.

Example: Who's the leader of this group?

                     

Whose is the possessive form of the pronoun who and is used in questions to ask who owns something?

Example: Whose running shoes are on the porch?

An easy trick to always choose the right word is to say both words in the contraction when you read the sentence.

Read this sentence: Who's the leader of this group? as Who is the leader of this group? Because it makes sense to read it as who is, who's is the correct choice.

Read this sentence and choose the correct word:

(Who's, Whose) answers are correct? It would make no sense at all to choose the word who's, because if you read the sentence and included both words in the contraction it would read: Who is answers are correct? That is obviously wrong, wrong, wrong.

The correct choice would be: Whose answers are correct?

Click here for a FREE lesson and 20 question quiz on the use of Who's and Whose.

Visit my store for more helpful products.

*This is an updated post from 2013.

All the best,

Teach Grammar the Easy Way

I hope by now,  if you are using one of my Simple Steps to Sentence Sense books to teach grammar and usage, you have discovered that students can be successful and make good grades and even enjoy learning. As the English Proverb states: "Nothing succeeds like success."

This post is an update on an older post, and many teachers tell me reading it was very helpful. I hope so. 

What a wonderful feeling it is to give students frequent chances to succeed and feel good about themselves! 

The way to achieve this is really simple. When you grade students’ group and individual papers, break each lesson into several components. (I always let them trade and grade except on tests.) 

For example, when you do Step 3: Finding the Subject, don’t just check for the subjects that students find in each sentence. That would only give students 20 answers at 5 points apiece and make it easy for them to get a low score.
Instead, count the prepositional phrase(s) in each sentence as one point, the verb phrase as one point, and the subject as one point. Voila! Now there are over 60 answers and students can miss several and still get a decent score. 

Of course, these tips work with any assignment you give your students whether or not it comes from one of my books. 

For each step, you can decide which parts of the sentence are the key parts. For example, when working on Step 4: Finding the Complements, the key is deciding if the verb is action or linking before looking for the complement. When grading each paper, be sure to count the verb and whether it is an action or a linking verb along with the complement as key elements in the score. 

Use the answer pages in the back of the book to count the number of elements you plan to score in each lesson and make your directions clear about which parts of the sentence students are to mark when scoring papers. This is another opportunity for the teacher to re-teach and emphasize that sentence analysis must be done in steps, and that the steps must be done in order. Skipping a step is a recipe for confusion and disaster. 

This method could get to be a bit too much of a hassle if the teacher had to do the math each time papers are graded and figure out the correct score for papers that have 63 answers, or 71 answers, etc. It could, but it won’t, if you download my Grading Scale Chart. You can print it on both sides of a sheet of paper, slip it into a plastic folder sleeve and take it with you anywhere. You can even give your students a copy if you so desire. 

I always just called out the answers out loud: minus 18 equals ? (or whatever). Then I asked the whole class to raise their hands as I called out the grades starting with 50 or below. When the student heard his/her grade, he/she was to put his/her hand down. At the end, the students with 99 or 100 still had their hands up and got a round of applause, but no one was embarrassed at having a low score. 

Simple Steps to Sentence Sense is an easy and enjoyable way to teach grammar. You can choose to print the exercises and tests and distribute them to your students, or your students can access them in Google Drive and Go Paperless! You will find the books HERE. You know you are successful when you hear students say, “This is fun.” Grammar? Fun? Well, all right! 

Click here for a series of free instructional videos that explain each step in detail.

Please tell your friends and colleagues about my book. (Hint: Simple Steps to Sentence Sense is also a useful tool for foreign language teachers to use, and it is really successful with special education and ESL students.) 

Thanks for reading,

Teach it Your Way!

One of the most exciting things about education these days is that teachers have many choices. Just as our students have individual learning styles, so do teachers have unique teaching styles.

Some teachers prefer to use a projection device and others prefer the white board. Some teachers like to make copies and have students write their answers on the worksheets provided to them. Others make master copies and have the students write their answers on notebook paper.

Some teachers use textbooks and others leave the textbooks in the cabinet and create their own lessons and worksheets.

Now, because of the advances of technology, students can watch instructional videos, listen to audio recordings, or read and record their own answers.

And then there is the most innovative idea of all. Go Paperless. Create your own lessons in Google Drive and use in Google Classroom. Your students will work in the cloud and turn in their work to you via email or however you choose. No more paper shuffling. No more standing by the copy machine when preparing your lessons.

And even more exciting than that is the fact that experienced teachers h

ave created Google Drive Interactive Lessons, and you can buy them on TeachersPayTeachers.com. Just sign in to TpT and search for the hashtag #TpTDigital, or search for Google Drive Digital Resources.

I have 29 Google Drive resources for sale on TeachersPayTeachers.com, and I am working on more. I am pleased to say that my best seller, Simple Steps to Sentence Sense for High School, is now available both in the original print version and as a Google Drive Digital Resource. Take your pick and teach it your way!

Use the Active Voice

When writing simple sentences, learn to use verbs in the active voice as much as possible.

Although there are occasions when the passive voice is necessary, using it usually slows the sentence down. (Verbs in the passive voice use a form of "to be" as a helping verb (is, am, are, was, were, be, been, or being) in front of the past participle.

Examples: Kim was hit by Kerry. (This sentence is in the passive voice.) Kerry hit Kim. (This sentence is in the active voice.) 

To eliminate the passive voice: 
1) Remove the helping verb (is, am, are, was, were, be, been, or being.) 
2) Remove the preposition "by," if the sentence has one.
3) Flip/flop the ends of the sentence. (What you are really doing is switching the subject and the direct object.)

Here is an example of how to change a sentence in the passive voice to a sentence in the active voice.

The man was given an award by the service club.

1) Remove the form of "to be" used as a helping verb.The man was given an award by the service club.
2) Remove the preposition "by" (If it appears in the sentence.)The man was given an award by the service club.3) Flip/flop the ends of the sentence

Passive Voice - The man was given an award by the service club.” Active Voice - “The service club gave the man an award.”

Note: Be sure that you do not change the tense of the verb when you change it from passive voice to active voice.Both "was given" and "gave" are in the past tense.

Here's a product your students will enjoy. All About Verbs will help your students understand how to recognize and use verbs effectively. This product has 25 pages of instruction and 13 exercises.

Enjoy!