Professors Wilburne and Keat use children’s storybooks and the characters in the stories as the context for mathematical problems. Children imagining storybook scenarios in which the characters are struggling with problems used mathematical thinking as a natural way of helping. The study concludes that, if the story characters and contexts provide young children with elements of instruction that invite enthusiasm and assure engagement, the expenditure of class time is warranted.
View their work at:
http://www.nctm.org/eresources/view_media.asp?article_id=8119