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Chapter 6 Small Number and the Big Tree

Small Number is a young boy who gets into a lot of mischief. With his sister Perfect Number he visits their Grandma who lives in a small village on their Nation's traditional territory.

Testimonial for Small Number and the Big Tree from a teacher:

“We watched Small Number and the Big Tree several times. First for enjoyment and the pure fun of it all. We'd covered a lot of the cultural aspects and the kids picked right up on many of those points immediately. They took note of the reference to Small Number's grandmother's basket because we'd enjoyed learning about the intricacies of basketmaking through our District Basketry Kit -and they appreciate the talent and skill to create baskets.

We discussed and compared the difference between the climate that the cedar tree grows in. The moist rainforest is required for cedars to grow and quite different from our semi-arid desert where the pine trees grow. Pine needle baskets are more common in our area! They had fun estimating the number of salmon in the creek, as well.

Then we focused in on the question about how far across the tree was and reviewed the video a few times so my little math detectives could collect the clues, as I made notes on chart paper while the kids quickly shouted out some interesting mathematical facts.

They then discussed how old they thought Small Number was. We moved into the gym and we had 8 friends about the same age as Small Number stand in a circle with their arms outstretched. They were amazed at how big the Bear Tree was! We measured around the outside of the circle and then our grade 2 assistants carefully measured across to help get the answer! They LOVED it!â€