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One Grain of Rice- Math Activities

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Have you read the book, One Grain Of Rice, by Demi?  It is a story of a rajah in India who takes almost all of the people’s rice and stores it for a time when they need it.  However, the people begin starving and he does not share what is in the store house.  A smart girl figures out a way to get back the rice by tricking him.  I don’t want to give it all away… Great book, though!

It is such a great book to teach math concepts of doubling, place values, & multiplying. It also has great moral lessons that go along with the story. Some lessons I saw used it to teach scarcity, or about the culture of India. We read it this week and I wanted to find some fun activities to go along with it.  Here are some of the resources I found:

Tarleton has a lesson plan outline with some fun ideas to use in teaching about the book.
Rice Romp has some fun ideas as well. They have a lesson teaching place values.
I liked this concept of doubling pennies @ Math forum

I created a fun printable to use along with the book.  Click here to Download NOW!

We used rice to double our amounts through the first 7 days.  That was a large enough amount for us to count!  Then for the remaining numbers we added on paper and pulled out our place value flip book and figured out the numbers on there.  It was such a fun activity.

We also made a rainbow rice box this week.  I have seen this tutorial circling the web.  I am so glad we tried it.  My kids LOVE it.  I was surprised how much time they spent playing in it.  It goes along perfectly with this book.  I wonder how many grains of rice are in our box…..

To make your own rainbow rice:

Rice- I used a 5 lb bag and divided it into 6 colors- about 2 1/2 c. for each color of rice.
Food Coloring
Rubbing Alcohol

Mix a few drops of food coloring into 2-3 Tbsp of rubbing alcohol.  Put the rice into bowls and pour color mixture into the rice.  Mix until evenly coated with color. Pour rice onto cookie sheets to dry.  It was a cold & cloudy day, so we didn’t have any sunlight to speed up the process.  It took ours a few hours to dry.  (It is really stinky until the alcohol smell wears off!  Beware!)

Once it dries out,  pour into a plastic tub with some toys.  It will provide endless hours of entertainment!

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6 Comments

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Comments

  1. ABC and 123: A Learning Cooperative says

    November 29, 2011 at 1:30 am

    All those piles of colorful rice are certainly tempting! Looks like the perfect hook to getting the kids excited about the lesson! Thanks for linking up to ABC’s show and tell.

    Reply
  2. Dawn says

    December 5, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    What fun!
    Blessings,
    Dawn

    Reply
  3. Deb Chitwood says

    September 6, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Such great ideas for book-based activities! Thanks for sharing your free printable! I featured your post as the Free Printable of the Day at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow

    Reply
  4. melissa ho-sang says

    March 3, 2014 at 12:17 pm

    What grade level would you suggest this activity for? I would need to find a standard to go along with it and I’m kind of unsure which grade level to use.

    Thanks!
    Melissa

    Reply
    • Karyn Tripp says

      March 3, 2014 at 2:32 pm

      I did it with my third grade son, but any age that understands the concept of multiplying could do it.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. One Grain of Rice - ABC Blogging - My Harbor Lights says:
    August 6, 2014 at 9:30 am

    […] book.  Pinterest has some great ideas including coloring rice to use for art or sensory ideas.  Teach Beside Me has even more ideas to enjoying learning along with the book.  Illuminations focus direction on […]

    Reply

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Hi! I'm Karyn.
I am a former teacher turned homeschool mom of four kids. I LOVE teaching! I believe learning should be enjoyable and engaging. My goal is to ease the burdens of educators by offering memorable learning activities.
Questions? Contact me here: karyn@teachbesideme.com
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