TEACHER’S NOTES

Selections: The number kid

by Eileen Bourke

Activities author: Adrian Tennant

young learners tEACHER’S NOTES

Level: Flyers
Recommended age: Grade 5, primary (10+)
Time needed: Indicated for each activity
Type of English: American
Note: These activities can be done one after
the other, or can be done separately, depending
on the length and focus of your lesson.

Activity 1 (5-10 minutes) Activity 4 (5 minutes)

1. Hand out the worksheet and ask the children to 1. Tell the children they will now find out the
match the symbols with the words. answers to the two math problems from
2. Monitor and help where necessary. Activity 3.
3. Put the children in pairs and have them check 2. Either play the recording or hand out the story
their answers together. and get the children to read it.
4. Check the answers as a class. 3. Put the children in pairs and get them to
check together.
5. Ask the children which school subject these
symbols relate to (Math). 4. Check the answers as a class.
Key: Key:
1. d; 2. e; 3. b; 4. f; 5. g; 6. c; 7. a a. 22.85714; b. 630.6316

Activity 2 (10 minutes) Activity 5 (5 minutes)

1. Hand out the worksheet with Activity 5 and ask
1. Put the children in pairs and hand out
the children to see if they can remember which
the worksheet.
of the characters were good at each
2. Ask the children to discuss the questions with particular subject.
their partner.
2. Play the recording or get the children to read the
3. Monitor and help where necessary. story again and ask them to match the names
4. Ask a few pairs to report back to the class on and subjects.
their discussion. 3. Monitor and help where necessary.

Activity 3 (5 minutes) 4. Put the children in pairs and get them to check
their answers together.
1. Next, ask the children to look at the two 5. Finally, check the answers as a class.
math sums in Activity 3 and see if they can Key:
do them. Explain that the sums are difficult 1. Stephen c) Math
and the children should not worry 2. Carol a) Art/Painting
about getting them wrong. 3. Thomas g) Geography
2. Encourage the children to help each other. 4. Mary e) History
3. Ask a few children to tell you their answers. Write 5. Bart b) English
these up on the board but do not check them yet. Note: There are two other subjects included on this list
4. Explain that when they listen to the recording (or that aren’t mentioned in the story (Science and Sports).
read the story) they will get the correct answers.
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 TEACHER’S NOTES
Selections: The number kid
by Eileen Bourke

Activity 6 (10-20 minutes) answers down the grid.

young learners tEACHER’S NOTES

6. Monitor and help where necessary.

1. Either play the recording one more time, or ask 7. Finally, ask the children to report back on the
the children to read through the story again. results of their survey to discover which subjects
2. Then, tell the children you want them to write are the favorites in the class.
a short summary (between 30 and 60 words)
of the story.
3. Set a time limit of ten minutes.
heir list
4. Monitor and help where necessary.
5. Next, put the children in groups of three or four s together.
and ask them to swap summaries.
4. Finally, check as a class.
6. Tell the children you want them to read each
other’s summaries and comment on them. How
could they be better? Do they include all the
relevant information?
7. Monitor and help where necessary.
Alternative procedure:
Ask the children to work together in groups and
write the summary together (as a group effort). Post
the summaries on the classroom walls and ask the
children to walk around and read the summaries
written by other groups.

Activity 7 (5 minutes)
1. Put the children in groups and ask them to
discuss the four questions in Activity 7.
2. Monitor and help where necessary.
3. Ask a few groups to report back to the class on
their discussion.

Activity 8 (15-20 minutes)

1. Hand out the worksheet with Activity 8 and tell
the children they are going to carry out a survey
to find out which subjects are the most popular in
their class.
2. Ask the children to complete the ‘Me’ column for
themselves. You could either get them to check
(a) the subjects they like and cross (X) the ones
they don’t like, or you could ask them to rank them
from 1-7, with 1 being the best and 7 the worst.
3. Next, elicit the question forms they will need to ask
in order to complete the survey, i.e. Which subjects
do you like / dislike? What’s your favorite / least favorite
subject? etc.
4. Then, ask the children to stand up, mingle and find
four other students they can ask their questions to
5. They should write the name of each person they
ask at the top of a column and then mark the
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 TRANSCRIPT
Selections: The number kid
by Eileen Bourke
young learners transcript

The number kid

Written by Eileen Bourke Illustrated by Dan McGeehan

‘Stephen!’ shouted Billy from the back of the class. ‘What’s 160 divided by 7?’
‘22.85714,’ replied Stephen without looking up.
‘Good job! Thanks,’ said Billy, copying the number down in his notebook.
‘Stephen! When’s Thomas’s birthday?’ asked Mary.
‘It’s February 16,’ said Stephen, ‘and he was born on a Tuesday.’
‘Wow!’ said Thomas, ‘How
did you know that?’
‘You told me,’ said
Stephen.
‘I did?’ said Thomas,
looking confused. ‘When
did I tell you?’
‘On November 5 last
year, at 3.05 p.m. We
were in the yard, playing
baseball and everyone
was shouting about their
birthday,’ said Stephen.
‘Don’t you remember?’
‘Well, no, I don’t,’ said Thomas. ‘That’s nearly ten months ago.’
‘It’s actually nine months, three days, four hours and sixteen minutes ago,’ said
Stephen, looking briefly at his watch.
‘You did that calculation in your head?’ asked Mary, amazed.
‘Yes, of course,’ said Stephen. ‘How else would I have done it?’
‘With a calculator,’ said Thomas. ‘Come on, you’re doing it all on a calculator,
aren’t you?’
‘No, I’m not!’ said Stephen. ‘I don’t have a calculator,’ he continued.
‘Everyone has a calculator!’ laughed Ginny from the front of the class.
‘You mean you use a calculator for your homework?’ Stephen stared at Ginny as
if he didn’t believe her. ‘Don’t you do it in your head?’ he asked.
‘No way!’ laughed Ginny. ‘I’m no good at math. I always check everything with
my calculator.’
‘Stephen, what’s 11987 ... minus 5, divided by 19?’ asked Bart.
‘It’s 630.6316,’ Stephen said.
‘You’re amazing!’ said Bart. ‘OK, let’s try again. When is Carol’s birthday?’
‘It’s July 15. And before you ask, she was born in the Maryland Hospital at 6.00
p.m. exactly, on a Friday.’
Carol was so amazed that she fell off her chair.
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 TRANSCRIPT
TG or WORKSHEET
Selections:
Title The number kid
by Eileen Bourke
Author
young
subject

‘Wow!’ said Thomas. ‘You know what? We have a real genius here. Right here, in
our class!’ He looked at Stephen and gave him a big smile.
Stephen turned bright red, like a tomato. ‘I’m not a genius,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m
just Stephen.’
‘But you’re so good at math and remembering things, surely you must be a
genius,’ said Bart kindly.
‘I can prove I’m not,’
said Stephen. He got up
very slowly and went to
Carol’s desk. He picked
learners

up a painting of hers from

Tuesday’s art class. Then
he went to Thomas’s desk
title

and pulled out Thomas’s

geography notebook.
Next he walked over to
Mary’s desk and asked
her to hand him her history
homework. Finally he
walked up to Bart and
said, ‘Can I borrow your
English notebook, please?’
Stephen went to the front of the class and stood in front of the board where
everyone could see him.
‘Tell me what you see,’ he said, and he held up Carol’s painting.
‘A really good picture of a river with houses in the background and a dog barking
...’ said Thomas.
transcript

‘Right,’ said Stephen.

Next he picked out Thomas’s geography notebook. ‘Listen carefully,’ he said. ‘Test
1, May 7, 10 out of 10. Test 2, May 14, 10 out of 10. Test 3, May 21, 10 out of 10. Test
4, May 28, 10 out of 10.’
‘Good job!’ whispered Mary.
‘Now you, Mary,’ said Stephen. ‘History project last semester – teacher’s
comments: an excellent piece of work. History project last year – teacher’s
comments: excellent, good job, Mary.’
‘Now listen very carefully,’ said Stephen. ‘I’m going to read you a poem.’ The class
fell silent as Stephen read the poem aloud. It was from Bart’s English notebook.
When he finished, everyone clapped.
‘What a beautiful poem,’ said Carol.
‘And what a nice way to prove you’re not a genius,’ said Bart. ‘You just showed us
all that we’re all geniuses in our special ways, didn’t you?’
‘I hope so,’ said Stephen, and he went back to his desk without another word.

Published by arrangement with Macmillan Publishers S.A. de C.V.

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 WORKSHEET
TG or WORKSHEET
Selections:
Title The number kid
by Eileen Bourke
Author

Before listening / reading

young
subject

Activity 1

Match these symbols to the words

1. = a. minus / subtract
2. + b. divide
3.   ÷ c. more than
4.   × d. equals
<
learners

5. e. add / plus
6. > f. multiply / times
title

7.   − g. less than

What school subject do these symbols relate to?

Activity 2

Work with a partner and discuss these questions.

1. Are you good at Math?

2. Do you like Math? Why? Why not?
3. Are you good at remembering dates? (E.g. people’s birthdays)
WORKSHEET

4. What’s your phone number?

5. How do you remember it?
6. Is it easy to remember?

Activity 3

Test your math. Can you do these sums?

a. 160 ÷ 7 = ?

b. 11987 - 5 = ? Now ÷ this by 19 = ?

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 WORKSHEET
TG or WORKSHEET
Selections:
Title The number kid
by Eileen Bourke
Author

Listen or read
young
subject

Activity 5

Listen (or read) and match the names to the subjects each person is good at.

1. Stephen a. Art / Painting

2. Carol b. English
3. Thomas c. Math
4. Mary d. Science
5. Bart e. History
f. Sports
learners

g.   Geography
title

Activity 6

Listen to (or read) the story one more time. Write a short summary of the story (30-60 words).

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 WORKSHEET
TG or WORKSHEET
Selections:
Title The number kid
byEileen
Author Bourke

After you listen or read

young
subject

Activity 7

Work in groups and discuss these questions.

1. What is your favorite subject?

2. Why do you like it?
3. Are there any subjects you don’t like?
4. Why don’t you like these subjects?
learners

Activity 8
title

Carry out a survey and find out which subjects are the most popular in
your class.

Subject Me Name: Name: Name: Name:

English
Math
Geography
History
Art
Science
Sports
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