Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (Wayside School 2.50)

3. Thanksgiving

4. Valentine’s Day

5. Lincoln’s Birthday

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These are the questions Mrs. Jewls asked:

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• On what holiday do you give your sweetheart a valentine?

• What holiday do we celebrate on July 4th?

• On what holiday was Columbus born?

• On what holiday was Lincoln born?

• On what holiday do we give thanks?

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Due to the difficulty of these questions, each question was answered correctly by only two

people and missed by the other three. Calvin only got one right.

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In what order were they asked?

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Chapter 7

Lunch

Miss Mush was the lunch teacher at Wayside School. She had long arms and long legs. She had big hands and big feet. She had long fingers and long toes, too. She even had long fingernails and long toenails. (Her toenails were so long that they punched holes in her shoes.)

That was why they made her the lunch teacher. When she stood on her tiptoes she could reach higher than any other person at Wayside School. She was a terrible cook, but she was the only one who could reach the top shelf of the cabinet above the refrigerator.

PROBLEM 37

“Miss Mush, Miss Mush,” cried Rondi. “My shoe is stuck on top of the tetherball pole! Will you get it down, please?” (She had been playing kickball with her shoe untied.)

“I’ll try, Rondi,” said Miss Mush, who was very glad to have an excuse to leave the kitchen. It smelled funny.

Rondi’s shoe was balanced on top of the tetherball pole. One only had to touch it to get it down.

The tetherball pole was nine and a half feet high.

Miss Mush was six feet, two inches tall. If she stood on her tiptoes she could raise herself four more inches. Her arms, to the end of her fingers, not counting her fingernails, were each two feet, nine inches long. Her fingernails were three and a half inches long. Could she reach Rondi’s shoe without jumping?

PROBLEM 38