Maths at the Mela

Kavitha Mandana

Leelu is at the mela with the students of Standard 4. All 36 of them!
Sir says, "Those who want to go on the toy train raise your hands."
Everyone shouts, "Me, sir... me!"

Sir starts counting the hands.
Before he can get to 36, the toy train gets full.
It gives a loud toot of the whistle and takes off.
Standard 4 has to wait for the next round.

Next, it is time to go on the giant wheel.
Each swinging box of the wheel has two seats.
Leelu sees that a single ticket is for two people.

Before Sir starts counting one by one,
Leelu quickly counts her class in twos:
"2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14... 36."
The ticket collector asks, "How many tickets?"
Leelu answers, "18."

At the merry-go-round, each horse has three seats.

Bittu wants to show the class how clever he is.
So he begins counting in threes.
"3, 6, 9... 36!"
Sir asks, "How many horses do we need?"
Bittu proudly says, "12."

It is the end of the day. They are all tired. Sir wants to make sure all 36 children are safely back in the bus. This time, Didu wants to count. She notices that each row in the bus has four seats. So she counts loudly in fours.

"4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32... "
She stops just before saying '36'.
"Sir, two kids seem to be missing and
are not in the bus!" she gasps.
The bus driver, Didu and Sir count the sleeping class again. Who could be missing?

"Aaaah! Come, see... here is one missing fellow,"
the driver says from the back of the bus.
On the last row is Montu, fast asleep and snoring!

But that only adds up to 35 children.
Just as Sir steps out to search for the missing child,
Didu shouts, "Sir, come back please...
we found her!"
"Who is this naughty girl?" Sir asks.

Didu points at herself.
"Me, Sir. I had forgotten to count myself!"

Number fun
You don't have to go to a mela to count
in twos, threes or fours. All around us
are chances to count in sets.
Count the number of feet in your classroom,
by counting in twos!