The Great White Man-Eating Shark:

A Cautionary Tale

Summary

Margaret Mahy's book, The Great White Man-Eating Shark--A Cautionary Tale, tells the story of a boy named Norvin who wanted to be an actor. However, because Norvin looked too much like a shark, he decided to learn how to swim instead. As Norvin swam, he tried to swim just like a shark, but there were too many swimmers at his beach. Therefore, to get rid of the swimmers, Norvin strapped a fin to his back and acted like a shark and scared all of the swimmers away. Norvin was alone for days and days in the ocean, but soon the people came back to swim and Norvin began his acting once again. Unfortunately his last acting job found him side by side with a real shark, and Norvin was so frightened that day, that he did not swim in the ocean for the rest of the summer.

Creative Mathematical Questions

--Look at page 1. About how many teeth do you think Norvin has? Do you think a real shark has more or less teeth than Norvin? Why do you think the way you do? (Standards 3,4, and 5)

--Look at the people in the ocean on page 3. Point to the person who you think is the furthest from the shore. Point to the person who you think is closest to the shore. (Standards 4 and 6)

--Look at page 5 very carefully. How many flowers could Norvin plant using the pots shown on the shelf if he put 2 flowers in each pot? Why did you choose that number? (Standards 1, 2, and 7)

--Look at page 9. List all the shapes you can find in the picture and describe where you found that shape. (For example, The toy inner tube has a circle in the middle.) (Standards 2 and 3)

--Look at page 15. Exactly how many people would have to get out of the water so that Norvin could swim all alone? How did you find your answer? (Standards 1 and 6)

--Look at page 17. Is Mr. Dorsey less than half way, more than half way, or exactly half way under the water? Why did you choose your answer? (Standards 1, 2, and 5)

--Look at page 22. About how many inches under the water do you think the real shark is? Is the real shark or Norvin closer to the bottom of the ocean? How did you find your answers? (Standards 2, 3, and 5)

--Continue looking at page 22. Count the shark's teeth. Was your answer to the second part of question 1 close to this answer? (Standard 2, 3, and 6)

--Look at the last page of the book. If Norvin got brave and went back in the ocean, and then saw a shark in the shark net, about how many seconds do you think it would take Norvin to swim from the flag on the shark net if he was swimming one fingernail per second? (Measure with your first finger's fingernail.) (Standards 1, 4, and 7)

Creative Mathematical Activities

• Create-a-shark. (For this activity, the teacher would need obtain one real shark tooth for each student.) After reading the story, the students will be given a shark pattern (*with a large, open mouth) from which they can make their own shark. The students will also be given a tooth patterns and one real shark tooth. The student may make as many or as few teeth as they like, but limits should be given. The student may then cut out and decorate their shark and paste or tape their teeth into the mouth of their shark. The student should then number each tooth using a black marker or pen and use the real tooth as their starting point. The sharks could then be placed on an "ocean" bulletin board. (Standards 4, 6, and 7)list

• Picture Time. (For this activity, the teacher would need to obtain several pictures and/or photographs of people in the ocean.) The students should be separated into small groups. Each group should receive at least two pictures and a record sheet. The teacher will show the class a picture of people in the ocean and ask questions such as, "How many people are in the ocean?--"If all of the girls went to the shore, how many people would remain in the ocean?"- "Which person is the farthest from the shore?" Questions like these should be listed in columns on the record sheet with space data from 2 pictures. The students would then answer the questions about their pictures and record their findings on the record sheet. (Standards 2, 3, and 7)

• Role Play. The students may act out questions 2, 3, and 4 to find the answers. As a class, the number of actors should be determined from the illustrations in the book and then parts may be assigned to specific students. A narrator should be established to read the page from which the question is asked. The students acting would act out what the narrator is reading and the remaining students may use the visual clues to determine the answer to the question. (Standards 1, 3, and 4)

• The Great Beach Challenge. (For this activity, the teacher would need to obtain a large amount of seashells and/ or sand.) The students should be separated into small groups. The teacher should give each group a container of sand, a container of seashells, a small cup (ie. Dixie cup), and a record sheet (The containers should be labeled with numbers.). First, the group should estimate how many seashells are in the container and record that number in the appropriate space on the record sheet. The group may then estimate how many cups-full of sand are in the container and record. After the estimations are made, the containers should be passed on to the next group. After every group has had every container, records should be handed in and the testing shall begin. Using whatever container their group ended with, the group should count out exactly the number of seashells and use the cup to determine exactly how many cups- full of sand there are in the container. Each group will present their findings. The group who estimated most accurately for all the containers would be the winner. (Standards 2, 4, 5, and 6)

• My Own Ocean. (For this activity, the teacher would need to obtain one plastic or Styrofoam bowl for each student, table salt, measuring spoons, and water.) Students should be separated into small groups. Each student will receive a bowl. The teacher will then fill the bowls with gallon jugs of water--pointing out to the class the number of gallon jugs and the portions of the jugs that are needed to fill up all of the bowls. Each group will then be given a set of measuring spoons. Each person in the group should choose a different spoon to use and be prepare to identify the spoon and tell why they chose that spoon. Each group will then be given a bowl of table salt and should use the spoon they chose to measure their amount of salt. The student should then place that salt into their bowl. The students may then taste their "ocean" and make observations about their ocean so they might make inferences about the real ocean. An organized class discussion should follow for comparison of data. (Standards 2, 3, and 6)

• Graph `Em. (For this activity, the teacher would need to obtain several copies of the book and graph paper.) Students should be separated into small groups or partners. Each group should be given a copy of the book and a graph worksheet. The graph worksheet will be labeled with the end marks--exclamation marks, periods, and question marks. The students should then go through the book and color in a space of the graph for each end mark. (ie. color in one square in the question mark column for the question mark on page 5) The completed graphs may be compared between groups. (Standards 2, 4, and 6)

• Sharks! (For this activity, the teacher would need to obtain string, grey construction paper, a hula-hoop, and plastic chips.) Each student should make their own shark fin--like Norvin's--and strap it to their back with string. The students will then be given a plastic chip. All of the sharks (students) will stand around the shark pool (hula-hoop) facing towards the pool. The teacher will then walk around the back of students, tapping a certain number of students. Then all students should turn around--away from the pool. When given a signal, those "tapped"students should throw their chips in the center. By listening carefully, the students should try to estimate how many sharks have jumped into the pool. The students should record their estimation on a scrap piece of paper provided. When all answers have been recorded, the "tapped" sharks should jump into the pool and the exact number will be determined. The student with the most correct estimation may then be a tapper. If more than one student is correct, a team of tappers should be created. (Standards 1, 3, 4, and 5)

Limerick

There once was a swimmer named Norvin,

Swimming far in the sea with one shark fin.

He scared people so,

They all had to go

To the shore, but a real shark would win.

Norvin learned that his selfish plan lost,

He never swam again-what a cost!!

Alone on the shore,

Oh dear, what a bore!

For kind people and sharks shouldn't be crossed!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mahy, Margaret. The Great White Man-Eating Shark--A Cautionary Tale. Illus. Jonathan Allen. New York: Scholastic, 1989.

NCTM Standards. From Math Methods Syllabus: Dr. Sue Baker. 1998.