Posts filed under ‘Sesame Street’
1 2 3 Count With Me
From Fish to Infinity, by Steven Strogatz
Sesame Street: 1 2 3 Count With Me
Ernie teaches Humphrey to count at The Furry Arms hotel.
The best introduction to numbers I’ve ever seen — the clearest and funniest explanation of what they are and why we need them — appears in a “Sesame Street” video called “123 Count With Me.” Humphrey, an amiable but dim-witted fellow with pink fur and a green nose, is working the lunch shift at The Furry Arms hotel, when he takes a call from a room full of penguins. Humphrey listens carefully and then calls out their order to the kitchen: “Fish, fish, fish, fish, fish, fish.” This prompts Ernie to enlighten him about the virtues of the number six.
Children learn from this that numbers are wonderful shortcuts. Instead of saying the word “fish” exactly as many times as there are penguins, Humphrey could use the more powerful concept of “six
One potato, two potato
One potato, two potato, three potato, four!
Well, I made a batch of hot potatoes
(bend forward and stir as in a big pot)
Dropped ‘em on the floor!!
(look shocked, and put hands on face in surprise)
Five potato, six potato, seven potato, eight!
So I stomped ‘em into mashed potatoes
(stomp feet while walking forward a few steps and then back)
And plopped ‘em on a plate
(hands out like plopping potatoes on a plate!)
Nine potato, ten potato, can’t believe my eyes!
(cover and uncover eyes in surprise)
The children ate ‘em up and now they want some french fries!!!
(Say to children “how many?” and march with swinging arms and stomping feet while counting…)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 fries!
(jump up and reach over head to sky on 10)
“Again??”
Do the count again, faster and a third time even faster then plop back down to sitting after the last 10.
