This is part of the Teaching Math with Picture Books series.

The math picture book Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland appealed to me because of the punny title – and the promise of wordplay was certainly fulfilled!

This fun little gem of a book is only one in a series of Sir Cumference books by Cindy Neuschwander.

Enjoying the puns with the math…

Radius is the son of Sir Cumference and Lady Di of Ameter. (See what I mean – the puns start on page one of this picture book!)

He decides he’s old enough to take a quest and learns from his mentor, Sir D’grees (it’s side splitting, I tell ya!) about the missing King Lell.

Radius is given a “medallion” by his parents to help him on his quest. No one really knows what the medallion is for, but it seems it might be helpful.

Or at least cool to have while on a quest.

As a treat to the reader, a laminated version of this medallion is included in the back of the picture book. It looks like this:

More punny math fills the pages!

Angles, degrees and all things geometry show up. And Neuschwander doesn’t write them out loud until the end, when Radius starts naming them.

Here you see the steep “cute” roofs of the village in the valley near the Mountains of Obtuse.

Husband enjoyed paying attention, looking at the pictures, and trying to guess which person or thing would end up as a namesake for a geometry term. I think he enjoyed it more than K8!

It’s worth a read – for fun or as a lesson!

Read this picture book to enjoy (as we did) or use it to introduce or enhance your geometry lessons. I found this great resource for 6th-9th grades: it’s a teacher lesson pack on lines and angles.

And the final pun is the best!

I won’t spoil it for you, though. Get it at the library or find Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland online. Read it. Enjoy it. You’ll see I’m right. (No pun intended!)

Share your thoughts in the comments and make sure to tell your PLN on twitter!

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