One Grain of Rice
A Mathematical Folktale by Demi
(1st grade - 8th grade) An Indian folktale about clever young girl who out- smarts the greedy king through her knowledge of the power of doubling. When Rani does a good deed, the raja offers to reward her, but all she asks for is one grain of rice, doubled each day for 30 days. The raja is happy to comply, not realizing it will amount to enough rice to feed her entire village!
Younger children will appreciate the overall story line,
while teachers
of older children can use this in math lessons with kids learning multiplication, especially exponents.
Below are sample pages from inside One
Grain of Rice and at right is the page showing how quickly the
number grows when doubled each day over the course of a month.
