Title of Book: Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School
& Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Author: Louis Sachar
Publisher/Date: Scholastic Inc./1989
Scholastic Inc./1985
ISBN: 0-590-45726-8
0-439-34145-0
Grade Level: 5th
TEKS: (5.14) Underlying processes and mathematical tools: The student applies Grade 5
mathematics to solve problems connected to everyday experiences and activities in
and outside of school.
(B) solve problems that incorporate understanding the problem, making a plan,
carrying out the plan, and evaluating the solution for reasonableness;
(C) select or develop an appropriate problem-solving plan or strategy, including
drawing a picture, looking for a pattern, systematic guessing and checking, acting it
out, making a table, working a simpler problem, or working backwards to solve a
problem; and generalizations based on observed patterns and relationships.
Summary:
Louis Sachar has written a series of three books about Wayside School. The school should have
been built with thirty classrooms in a row, but was mistakenly built thirty stories high. This could
be the reason why the teachers and students from the thirtieth floor that are featured in the
Wayside stories are anything but normal! In addition to his original three books, he has also
written two more books that deal with Arithmetic at Wayside School.
Materials: Certificates to Attend Wayside School
Activity:
1. Begin the lesson by reading the introduction and a couple of chapters from Sideways
Stories from Wayside School. This will provide important knowledge about the characters
and the background of the school and help better understand why the teachers’ and
students’ thoughts and ideas are so backwards. After a couple of chapters, students will
be commenting that they wish they could go to Wayside School. Show students the
“Certificates to Attend Wayside School.”
2. Read the “Yard Teacher’s Introduction” from the book Sideways Arithmetic from
Wayside School. This introduction will explain to students that actual learning takes place
at Wayside, and to attend, they must be able to solve the puzzles in the book.
3. Read only page 2 of chapter 1, “Spelling,” and have students practice the first problem elf
+ elf=fool. Remind students to line up their letters just like they would line up their
numbers for a regular addition problem.
4. Ask students if they can explain “how” elf plus elf can equal fool. Give students a minute
or two to examine the problem in silence. Then have students discuss their ideas in
groups and share with the whole class.
5. Continue reading page 3 of Chapter 1. This explanation will lead the students on a clearer
direction with a set of rules that all the problems of this chapter will use. Rules such as:
every letter will only have a value from zero through nine and if you find the number
value for a letter, it will be true for the same letters in that particular problem. Allow
students to work for several more minutes on adjusting their ideas about “how” elf plus
elf can equal fool. Ask students to share their ideas with the whole class.
6. Read page 4 of Chapter 1 which will explain how to solve for f. e plus e has two equal
two digits. If you add a one digit number with another one digit number that equals a two
digit number, the “carry over” number will always be a one. Therefore the value of f is
one. Once you have found that f equals one, you can find the value of L because f plus f
equals two. So L equals two. If L equals two, and two plus two is four, then o equals four.
Students will assume that the letter e equals two, but different letters can not have the
same number value and using the number two for e doesn’t explain the f in fool because f
was the number one that was carried over. So e has to equal seven because seven plus
seven will produce a four and a carried over one.
7. After an explanation of sideways arithmetic, continue reading pages 5-8 and stop at egg +
egg = page. Again, give students a minute or two to think silently about their ideas, share
in groups, then share with the whole class. Give the students the clue to begin solving this
problem by first trying to solve for the value of the letter g. When a student figures out
the value of a letter and can explain clearly why their answer is true, they are to receive a
“Certificate to Attend Wayside School.”
8. There are many more chapters and many more problems to solve from this book. It will
probably take the rest of the year to finish all of them. Other chapters include numbers,
pronouns, paragraphs, recess, science, geography, lunch, and more. While completing
this book, I will also be reading the original Wayside stories to the students as well. It is
exciting to watch students challenge themselves to solve sideways arithmetic and make
connections between Sachar’s original series and his arithmetic book.
Sachar, Louis (1989). Sideways arithmetic from wayside school. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Sachar, Louis (1985). Sideways stories from wayside school. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Adapted by Erica L. Garcia, 2009
Certificate to Attend
Wayside School