Integer Adventure
Part one
Once upon a time there was a little green frog named Lily. Lily was the smallest frog in her family. She was always picked on by all of her older brothers and sisters, they always made her go and search for food because they were too lazy to do it themselves. Lily hated that.
One morning as Lily was looking for breakfast she spotted a snake following her. She was worried that it might start to chase her so she jumped a little faster. The snake started to slither a little faster, then faster, then it was chasing Lily! Lily hopped as fast as she could, trying to get away from the snake. As she was hopping Lily saw a tree right in front of her!
"Oh great what am I going to do now", she thought.
All of a sudden the tree started to talk! "I will move my branches if you can answer this integer question.....
"I know that one", she thought, thankful for the math lessons that her mother had taught her.
She wrote it out quickly on a nearby leaf, using money to show it.
"The answer is -4", she yelled proudly.
"OK I shall let you pass, and give you a short cut to help you get away from the snake."
"Thank you."
Lily kept hopping as fast as she could until she realised that the snake was no longer following her. She stopped to take in her surroundings and noticed that she was in an area that she didn't recognize. She was lost and she knew it. Lily started to cry.
"I know my siblings don't care about me but my parents do and they're probably worried sick about me right now. I have to get home, but where is home?"
"I know where your home is."
She whipped around only to find an ugly over sized toad sitting behind her.
"I can show you which direction to go, but only if you answer this integer question....
"That's easy", she thought as she showed it using a number line.
"Good job, and to get home you go to the East", he said.
So Lily hopped to the East as hard as she could, still passing unfamiliar things and sights, talking to unfamiliar people and just wishing that she could be home. Then Lily saw a sign.
Lily realized just then that the "short cut" that the tree had given her had taken her to an alternate universe! She was just about to freak out when she saw another sign.
Lily knew the answer to that one, so she put the answer on the paper that was beside the box using integer tiles.
She put her answer in the box and the ground started to shake, she started to spin, everything went blurry, then it was silent.
continued.....Part 2
Lily opened her eyes and looked around. She noticed some familiar sites and sounds and realized that she was very close to her house! So she hopped along in the direction of her house, but only got as far as the pond. In order to get to her house she had to cross the pond. Now you may be thinking that frogs are excellent swimmers, and they are, but Lily was an exception. She couldn't swim at all. She sat glumly for a few minutes by the pond until she spotted a series of lily pads going straight across the pond. The strange thing about them was that there was numbers on the pads. It looked like an integer question!
Lily knew the answer right away. She thought about it while she crossed the pond. In her head she re-wrote the question like this so it would make more sense...
After Lily crossed the pond, she saw her house, but something didn't look right. There was no one out side, and the house looked deserted. Lily went to the door and opened it slowly. Inside she saw the reason the house looked so deserted. Lily's parents and siblings were tied to chairs with gags over their mouths, and someone was robbing the house! Lily quickly sprang into action and jumped onto the thief, but she wasn't quick enough. The robber had her pinned down in a second.
"I will only let you and your family go if you can answer this integer question", he sneered.
Lily thought, and thought, and thought, but she just couldn't remember anything about adding and subtracting integers. Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw her mom trying to silently explain it to her. She understood just enough to figure out the answer, by re-writing the question so that it made more sense.
"No, you figured out the answer", he wailed as he left.
After that day, Lily's family treated her like a hero, and her brothers and sisters appreciated her. Lily was finally happy, and she never had to go and search for food ever again.
THE END
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