Amusement Park Math

Ably written and nicely illustrated with line drawings by academician and mathematician Michael Cain, Amusement Park Math: A Ten-Minute Daily Math Adventure offers students in grades 4 through 6 more than 120 challenging math lessons within the context of an entertaining and on-going storyline featuring such characters as Minerva, General Thumb, Flying Freda, Dr. Chin, Farmer Harrison, and others. The result is the acquisition by the student of the kinds of problem solving skills that will ensure success in basic mathematics. The range of math concepts the ten-minute exercises [cover] include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, multiple operations, fractions, decimals, and word problems. Amusement Park Math is highly recommended as a grade school level math curriculum supplement, and is especially appropriate for homeschooling math curriculums as well.

This teacher-friendly resource and skills-practice text provides 120 problem-solving challenges in a fun, corny story sequence about a bankrupt amusement park . . . Rather than a typical scope and sequence, the problem solving follows the story line, targeting the upper end of the recommended audience . . . Some challenges allow astute students to explore real-life economics: One town assesses penalties against people who owe back taxes. Other challenges are simple fun: As Zambul the Strongman discusses his career with a friendly farmer, students are given the arithmetic criteria to sort his 22 years' experience into categories of circus performer, sideshow ham, and wrestler . . . Following the travel and travail of General Thumb's Theater of Thrills through sometimes unrealistic scenarios is certainly more enticing than one or two unrelated problems in a standard mathematics textbook . . . However, the fun of following the adventures of General Thumb's troupe may well engage even reluctant mathematicians and struggling readers . . . I would recommend Amusement Park Math to teachers in the target grades of 4–6.