|
Introducing Billy
Arithmetic
By Delbert Blickenstaff
I really like math in school, almost as much as reading. One day
I was talking to Grandpa about math class and he said that when he was
in grade school it was called arithmetic. That’s a new word to
me. He also told me that math is short for mathematics, another
new word.
Our teacher makes math fun. We do mainly adding and subtracting
but we are beginning to multiply and divide. When we work with
two’s and five’s I like to think in terms of coins. Like 2
nickels is worth the same as a dime, which I already knew. But
now I can write it in math: 2 X 5 = 10.
Our teacher also has us make up math problems for the other kids to
solve. Here’s one I wrote. I have 4 coins in my pocket and
the total value is 50 cents. What are they?
(2 dimes, 1 nickel, and 1 quarter.) That’s easy.
Here’s a harder one. A mother gave her three boys one dollar in
coins, 7 in all. She told them that they had to give 10 cents to
the church as their offering and then they were to divide the rest so
that they each received the same amount of money. What coins did
each boy get? You figure it out.
I like to multiply. It’s like adding, only faster. I know
that 3 times 5 is 15, and 4 times 5 is 20. You can add them and
get the same number but it’s faster to multiply. We’ve started to
do some dividing, which is just the opposite of multiplying. Math
is fun.
I wonder if Grandpa had as much fun when he learned arithmetic.
If you wanted to shorten the word would you call it “tic?” That’s
a joke.
Billy
|
|
|
<
|
