| This is the story of how Sherlock
Holmes became a detective! Well, actually it's the story of how he learned to solve
problems, which allowed him to become a detective. In the course of the mystery, he learns
six problem-solving strategies: guess and check, draw a picture, draw a chart, look for a
pattern, work backwards, and act it out. He also learns the four steps to solve any
problem. Your students will learn right along with Sherlock and after the show may choose
a career in private detection.
CHARACTERS:
Sherlock Holmes
Dr. Watson
Clients
Bankers
Bicycle Store Clerks
Brother
Three Sisters
Passersby School Kids
Math Teachers
and a CHORUS comprised of all students who are not
playing roles on stage at the time.
This show also requires the use of an overhead projector
in several scenes, and we recommend that one student be
chosen to put the transparencies in place at the
appropriate moments. (See pages 49-53.)
(Class faces audience and sings)
CLASS:
This is a show about Sherlock Holmes
Song 1
And how he got his start
This is a show about Sherlock Holmes
And how he got so smart.
This is the story of Sherlock Holmes
And his first mystery
This is the story of Sherlock Holmes
So sit back and you’ll see—
He’s mastering math
Mastering math
It’s just a matter of finding the path
Mastering math
He learns more each day
He’s problem solving the problems away.
He’s mastering math
Mastering math
It’s just a matter of finding the path
Mastering math
He learns more each day
He’s problem solving the problems away.
(SINGERS can lean left and then right, or wave their
hands to each side, as they sing the following lines.
Make it silly!)
Oooh
Aaaah
Oooh
Ohhh
Oooh
Aaah
Oooh
Ohhh
He’s mastering math
Mastering math
It’s just a matter of finding the path
Mastering math
He learns more each day
He’s problem solving the problems away.
He’s solving the problems away.
(SHERLOCK HOLMES is walking around a room looking
at things through what should be a large magnifying glass.
WATSON enters.)
WATSON: Ah, there you are Holmes. What are you examining?
HOLMES: Come over here, Dr. Watson. I’ve discovered
something most peculiar. Everything I see through this magnifying
glass looks the same.
WATSON: How odd. May I have a look?
HOLMES (hands it over to WATSON, who begins to look):
No matter where I point it, I see the same thing. It’s like some
silly face is staring back at me.
WATSON: This isn’t a magnifying glass. It’s a mirror.
HOLMES: It is?
WATSON: Take a look.
(Hands mirror to HOLMES, who looks into it)
HOLMES: Aaaach. By Jove, you’re right! I never knew I
had such large nostrils. It’s horrifying. WATSON: Nonsense,
Holmes. You have perfectly normal nostrils. Delightful nostrils.
British nostrils!
HOLMES: Don’t try to cheer me up. I’m just not getting the
hang of this detective stuff.
WATSON: You’ll make a wonderful detective. You just need
more practice. What do you say we do some word problems?
HOLMES: No, please, Watson. You know what happens.
WATSON: Just one. Really, you can do it. Here. A train
leaves London going west at forty miles an hour. Another train
leaves on the same track from fifty miles west of London going
30 miles an hour. How long is it before they hit each other.
(HOLMES is silent. He looks as if he is thinking deeply—
or in great pain—but he is not moving. After a few seconds,
WATSON speaks.)
WATSON: Holmes? Holmes?
(HOLMES passes out, collapsing on the floor.
WATSON revives him.)
WATSON: Wake up. Come on, let me help you up.
HOLMES: It’s no use. No one will hire me as a detective.
I’ll never learn how to solve problems:
I, I just want to solve a mystery
Song 2
What a great detective I could be
But when problems have a number
I cannot get any dumber.
CLASS (suddenly sitting up straight and facing audience) :
Woh oh oh oh oh oh
Woh oh oh oh oh oh
HOLMES:
I, I just want to solve a mystery
Solve a famous crime or two or three
But my brain just stops and fidgets
When I have to work with digits.
HOLMES and WATSON:
I don’t know what to do
I haven’t got a clue.
My palms get cold and wet
My eyeballs, my eyeballs, my eyeballs start to sweat.
I, I just want to solve a mystery
What a great detective I could be
But when problems have a number
I cannot get any dumber.
HOLMES, WATSON, and CHORUS:
I don’t know what to do
I haven’t got a clue.
My palms get cold and wet
My eyeballs, my eyeballs, my eyeballs start to sweat.
My eyeballs, my eyeballs, my eyeballs start to sweat.
(Three CLIENTS enter.)
CLIENT #1: Is one of you Sherlock Holmes?
HOLMES: I am. Unless you’ve come to repossess my hat.
In that case… (points to WATSON) …HE is.
CLIENT #2: We need your help, Mr. Holmes.
HOLMES: You do? Are you sure?
CLIENT #1: There has been a crime.
CLIENT #3 (dramatically): Oh, the horror!
CLIENT #1 (trying to ignore #3, addressing HOLMES):
And we need you to solve it.
CLIENT #2: We work for the King of Plutopia. A Top
Secret Document has been stolen from the royal vault.
CLIENT #3: Oh, the horror!
CLIENT #2 (giving #3 a look, then to HOLMES):
And we must get it back immediately.
HOLMES: What’s in the document?
CLIENT #2: How should we know?
ALL THREE CLIENTS (shout): It’s a secret!
CLIENT #1: The thief left behind a clue.
(producing a large key)
A key to a safe-deposit box in the Bank of London.
WATSON: Why don’t you just go to the box and open it?
CLIENT #2: There’s no number on the key. And there
are thousands of boxes.
CLIENT #3: Oh, the horror!
CLIENT #1 (#1 and #2 stare at #3):
But the also thief left a note with a puzzle telling us the
number of the box.
HOLMES: Did you say a puzzle? Oh, the horror!
CLIENT #2: Here’s what the note says. (reading)
“The prince is now 11 years old. The king is 35.
How old was the prince when his father was four times older?”
(HOLMES has that pained look again)
WATSON: Holmes?
(HOLMES passes out. WATSON helps him revive.)
CLIENT #1: Can you help us?
HOLMES: Are you crazy? It could take months to solve. Years, even.
CLIENT #2: Why don’t you try the Guess and Check method?
CLIENT #3: Oh, how fun! I guess 6.
CLIENT #1: It’s not 6.
CLIENT #3: How do you know?
CLIENT #1: I just know.
CLIENT #2: The Guess and Check method can help us figure
it out. Let’s try some numbers.
(The problem appears on the overhead. As each number is
“tried out,” we see it on the overhead.)
CLIENT #2:
Song 3
Take a shot
Try a 10
That’s too high?
Then try again.
CLIENT #3: How ’bout six?
CLIENT #1: That’s too low.
CLIENT #3: Not a six?
CLIENT #1: I told you so!
CLIENTS:
Guess and check
Guess and check
Don’t use hunt and peck
Grope and hope leaves things a wreck
Zero in with guess and check.
Try a nine
Let’s explore
Still too high?
Then try once more.
How ’bout eight?
Take a look
Hey it works
You’ll catch the crook!
Guess and check
Guess and check
Don’t use hunt and peck
Grope and hope leaves things a wreck
Zero in with guess and check.
HOLMES: The answer is eight! Amazing. Come on, Watson.
Let’s get to the bank and check out safe-deposit box
number eight.
(To CLIENTS)
We’ll be back in a flash with the document.
(CLIENTS exit. HOLMES and WATSON walk across stage,
and then back to where the BANKERS have entered.)
Song List
Click on the song name to hear samples in
mp3 format. Please note that internet song samples have low fidelity and rest assured that
the CDs we sell sound much better. Problems hearing the music? Visit our Audio Help page.
Top of Page
| Vocabulary
Terms from Mastering Math |
peculiar
repossess
safe-deposit box
chocolate mousse
Aristotle
Rembrandt
cannibal
twelve-step
program
tart |
obstacle
drat (slang)
shilling
take a shot
hunt and peck
zero in
"put the cart before the horse"
"the play’s the thing" |
Problem Solving Concepts
Four steps to problem solving
Guess and check
Make a table or chart
Work backwards
Act it out
Draw a picture
Find a pattern |
Top of Page
Teacher
Reviews:
"Bravo! We just received the
hot-off-the-press Mastering Math script and
CD. It is fabulous – witty, catchy and sure to be a hit with kids and parents
alike! In the past three years, my kiddos have put on Aesop’s Fables, The Incredible Westward Movement, Tall Tales, The
Weather Show, Jack and the Beanstalk,
and Little Red Riding Hood. Parents
tell me their kids remember these plays for years and continue to sing the songs.
(Our favorite is Sodbusters!)
I can’t wait to get started on Mastering Math. My kids will be able to
remember and use the problem solving strategies much more easily by putting it to music.
I wasn’t sure how you could make a math play and you’ve far exceeded my
expectations.
Thank you for the outstanding curriculum-based
plays. Their reasonable cost makes it easy to use them in the classroom. The
kids and I love them and each year’s group looks forward to finding out which plays
we’re going to do.
Keep up the great work you do!"
---Lee Ann Jackson, Teacher (4th grade), McAuliffe Elementary, Sammamish, WA
"Just a quick not to let you know th my sixth
grade class and I loved 'Mastering Math.' We performed it for the school on Math Discovery
Day, and then again for the parents. It reinforced in a delightful way the problem-solving
strategies we've been emphasizing since the primary grades. As the year progressed, there
were occasions when we'd be doing a word problem, and students would spontaneously break
out in the song from the musical that focused on the particular strategy that they were
now finding quite useful. 'Mastering Math' made the problem-solving strategies stick with
the kids in a way that nothing had done previously. Thank you!
--Debi Madden, Teacher (6th grade), Sumner/Danbury Elementary, Claremont, CA
"We just finished performing the 'Mastering
Math' musical. It was a huge success and a crowd favorite. This is the fifth year I have
used your musicals and every year we perform them they are loved by the students and
parents. They are already asking what play we will do next! Thanks to your creative
talents, so many teachers and students who would have never taken such risks in drama are
now stars."
---Christine Olin, Teacher (5th grade) Castaic Elementary, Castaic, CA
Read the review in the here.
To submit your own review, just e-mail it to ron@badwolfpress.com Be sure to include
your school name and what grade you teach.
Top of Page
Two of You are Planning to
Put the Play on Together??
If you ask us, we always suggest having just one class put on a play. We
think each kid is more involved, and we think it's easier for you to deal with a smaller
number of students.
But lots of teachers disagree with us.
They've been happily doing the plays together for years.
In fact, Amy Anderson, the teacher who does four musicals a year (and she talks about this on our home page) thinks two classes
together is the way to go.
Then what do I need to purchase?
Think of a musical play like a library book. Only one teacher may "check out"
(i.e. put on) the play at a time. If another teacher wants to produce the music play that
you purchased in a separate production and at a later date, you may loan
out your original plan and student copies.
Your "library" needs two copies of the play for two teachers to
put on the play at the same time. If a teacher wants her class to put on the play with
your class, she needs to buy her own copy of the play. For three or more teachers
to produce a play together, purchase three copies for your "library" and Bad
Wolf extends a Site License for all the teachers and
classes at your school.
But why can't I just make extra copies of
the play? If copies are made for a class other than the purchasing
teacher's, it's an infringement of U.S. copyright law. Yikes! Bad Wolf
likes to toe the line where Uncle Sam is concerned, so we offer a discount on the purchase
of multiple copies of the play.
If you are 2 teachers putting on the play
together...................................$60
* Includes 2 copies of the book and CD (save almost $20 off of
buying
them separately) so each of you has a CD and
book to work with.
* Free bonus: We'll throw in our famed
"Earthworms on Parade" CD. Y'know,
that's the one with the six
goofiest songs about earthworms ever written
($9.95 value.)
* Includes the right to reproduce the
script for the students in both of
your individual classes.
Questions? Call or email Ron Fink at (888) 827-8661 or ron@badwolfpress.com
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