Two of Everything

Title: Two of Everything

Author/Illustrator: Lily Toy Hong

Grades: K-4

A darling retelling of a Chinese folk tale about an elderly couple who finds a magical brass pot that doubles everything put inside of it. They begin to make doubles of everything: hair pins, coins and even (by accident) themselves.

NCTM Content Standards: Numbers & Operations, Algebra

How to Use: This book can be used to make predictions (They put one vase in the pot, how many will they have now?) and to see patterns, specifically doubling. The story serves as a great introduction to multiplying by twos and can be used to show the link between addition and multiplication (5 coins + 5 coins = 2(5 coins)). Students can be asked to record, prove or even act out the doublings that happen in the text (10 coins + 10 coins = 20 coins) and to continue doubling beyond the story (What would happen if we take those 20 coins and put them in the pot?). The story can be used to think about large magnitudes (How many times would you have to double the 5 coin purse before you got to 100? What about 1000?) or even to think about the concept of infinity (What happens if we keep doubling our coin purse for hours and days and years? What's the highest number we'll get to?). And finally, the story presents great opportunities for inter-subject connections with other folk/fairy tales, with topics on Chinese culture, with social concerns (e.g. poverty, wealth, materialism), and more.