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Super Sand Castle Saturday

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Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!
by Marilyn Burns
Mr. and Mrs. Comfort  invited 32 guests over for spaghetti and meatballs. Each new guest shows up with their own seating arrangement in mind. Will everyone find a seat?
Resources for Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!:
Full Book Review (English)
Brief Book Review (English)
Resources for Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!:
Table for Forty (English)
Mesa Para 40 (Spanish)

How would you arrange the tables in the Comfort family’s home?   

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Math Connections: area, units, perimeter, multiplication, division, arrangement, size, addition 

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Activities To Do Together:

  • Talk about what the area and perimeter of an object are.

  • Have your child calculate the perimeter and area of a rectangular table. Each chair is 1 unit in length. For example, if the table has three chairs on one side it is 3 units long. After, use the measurement to draw a seating plan to sit 24 people.

  • After reading the book, talk to your child about the table arrangements shown and ask if they can explain why rearranging the tables did not work.

  • Plan a menu out for 10 people. Plan how many meatballs everyone gets, how many loaves of bread you will need, how many quarts of sauce, and how many pounds of spaghetti. For older children, ask them to figure out how much the entire dinner would cost.

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Extension Questions:

  1. In the book, why was Mrs. Comfort worried about the tables being rearranged?

  2. Mr. Comfort made 96 meatballs, how many meatballs did each person get at dinner? 

  3. If you have four family members, 2 adults and 2 children (each adult will eat 5 meatballs and each child will eat 3 meatballs), how many meatballs do you need to make? 

  4. How many children came to the family reunion? How many sets of twins were there? How many sets of triplets?

  5. What is the smallest number of tables Mrs. Comfort needed in order to fit 32 people?

  6. If you have a garden that is 5 feet wide and 4 feet long, what is the area of your garden? What is the perimeter of the garden? Identify what the area measurement could be used for. What could the perimeter measurement be used for?

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Vocabulary for Building Math Concepts:

8, 16, 32, 96, altogether, divide, four, long, one, pounds, quarts, several, short, three, time, two

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Please check out the Book Guide for Spaghetti and Meatballs for All! for more!

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Online External Resources for Spaghetti and Meatballs for All!:

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