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Katie, an 11-year-old girl from New Zealand, wrote to Math Cats awhile back with lots of ideas for a town full of Math Cats who "are all really brainy." We liked this idea, and it became the January - March 2003 Math Cats Writing Contest: "When the Math Cats Came to Town." Katie had suggested many possible cat names and the special way each cat had for solving math problems. Many of the young people who entered the contest used some of Katie's suggestions. One option also was to think of the story as one chapter in a book. Below are the winning entries. We hope you'll read them all! (Last names will be posted when parents provide permission.)
First Place - "A Contest with Tigga"
Second Place - "Three Cats - Pizza, Jumper, and Snowy"
Third Place - "Half a Friend"
Fourth Place - "Ill because of Bad Math"
Fifth Place - "The Helpful Math Cat"
Other Finalists
Who judged the contest?
We're helping a special friend of Math Cats, too!
* First Place
(winner of the handmade Math Cats Soma blocks):
A Contest with Tigga
by Deborah Faith Taylor
age 10, grade 6, homeschooled, Ringgold, Georgia, U.S.
Tigga is a striped cat with black ears and deep blue eyes. She is a tiger from the jungle and uses her stripes to help her with her math.
When she needs to do liquid measures, she takes off her stripes and
melts them. When she needs to put them back on, she just lets them cool
and puts them back.
One day, Tigga went to school.
"Ha! I bet if I were to have a math competition with Tigga, I’d win!" Robby said proudly. Robby was a cat just a little older than Tigga and
the class bully. He was always robbing things from Tigga and her
friends.
"Um, I don’t know Robby, Tigga’s pretty good," Robby’s friend, Scooter, replied.
"What are you talking about? I’m the meanest keenest cat around!" he argued.
"You’re on!" Tigga wanted to end the conversation right then and there. "Tomorrow at four o’clock. In the class room." Tigga hurried down the hall to class and shook her paw in the air. "I’m gonna beat this 'Robby Hobby' once and for all!"
"I hope I win," Robby thought doubtfully.
"I hope you know what you’re doing," Ginger purred softly as they were going down the hall together. She knew how her friend Tigga was.
"Will you not hurry and get to class?" Mrs. Inow was looking directly at Tigga. Ginger had already gone to class.
"OK, I’m coming, Mrs. Inow," she called to her.
Mrs. Inow (I know) is that type of... well you know. NO I know. She has that sweet but strict voice, she always wears a dress, she wears her
hair down to her waist, and sometimes she is so sweet and she is that
light honey color, that most people call her Mrs. Honey. Which I think
is much more to my approval. I know it sounds funny since I'm making up
the story. Anyways back to the story.
That evening, Tigga came in the house very happily. "Mom! You wouldn't believe what happened today!"
"Oh, would I," was her mother's reply.
"Robby is going to have a contest with me tomorrow!" she announced, ignoring her mother’s reply.
"A date?" said her mother acting surprised.
"Mom! You know better than that!"
"Sorry. Just remembering when your father and I used to go out to parties and dance all night," she said half to herself.
Tigga woke up the next morning and mumbled softly, "Today’s the day." She woke up and got ready for the day. "OK, here goes nothing," she said
when she was ready.
Going out the door, she grabbed a banana and popped it into her mouth. She would need to eat plenty for the big contest she would be
competing in. When she got to the school, there were only a few kittens,
so she decided to go ahead and start on her schoolwork.
After school, she studied her division and multiplication to make sure she could manage the contest. After a good bit of studying, she
went into the classroom where the contest would be. There he was,
sitting at the table, counting the milk money he had collected from
other kittens.
"Ah," he said sarcastically, "there you are. We've been waiting for hours."
"Sorry. I was just studying. I mean, not that I thought I would get a zero!" she argued.
"Then let's begin," he was going to say. But he noticed she had already begun, so he started taking his, too.
"Done," she said after about ten minutes. He had just gotten
three-fourths there.
After he finished, Tigga and Robby graded their work.
"I got a hundred!" Tigga yelled excitedly. "What did you get, Robby?"
"A hundred," he stammered.
"Oh. Really?" she tried to sound excited.
"No, a sixty," he sighed.
"Well, then that means I won!" she screamed, "I can’t wait to tell Mom!" And that is just what she did.
The moral of this story is,
If you find yourself bragging,
you’ll find yourself lacking.
* 
Deborah wins first prize: a one-of-a-kind handmade handpainted set of Soma blocks, created by Wendy Petti, the mother of all Math Cats. The blocks are made of 27 cubes, decorated with 27 white Math Cats. You can use the 7 Soma blocks to make lots and lots of 3D shapes (like a cube and a staircase and a bed and a throne). The first prize includes a booklet with lots of design ideas.
* Second Place:
Three Cats - Pizza, Jumper, and Snowy
by Alison W.
age 8, grade 3, Muhlenberg Elementary School, Mr. McDermott's class,
Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
There once were three kittens that used their special talents to do math. First, there was Pizza, who liked geometry. Before he ate his
pizza, he would see how many slices there were, and what fraction it
was. Jumper was big in measuring. He jumped and jumped, and then
measured how high his jumps were, and instead of giving the measurement
in inches, he converted it to feet. Snowy liked to measure how much
snow fell on the ground. These three cats were famous.
One day they went to Spain, where the cats there weren't interested in math and thought it was just a big waste of time. It took a long
time, but these award-winning cats showed them that math was fun and
not a waste of time. The king cat of Spain thought about it and then
told the cats that they could do math in their country. Pizza, Jumper,
and Snowy then told all the cats all they needed to know about math.
Soon, they left.
The cats in Spain now used math to solve their problems and allowed math to be taught at their schools, so all the kittens knew how to do
math, so they would grow up to be smart cats.
* Third Place:
Half a Friend
by Katherine S.
St. Peter's Interparish School, Ms. Fenske's class,
Washington, D.C., U.S.
One afternoon, two Math Cat friends named Whiskers and Snowy were playing tag in the park. "Tag, you’re it!" called Snowy, while throwing a
snowball at Whiskers.
"Oh yeah!" said Whiskers.
They continued playing tag for a few more minutes, and then they said goodbye, and walked home.
The next morning they walked to school together and got to school just before the bell rang.
"Please take your seats," said Mrs. Catsworth.
In a few minutes she introduced a girl who would be in their class for the rest of the school year. Her name was Buttercup.
After school when Whiskers and Snowy were in the park doing their homework (Whiskers was counting her whiskers and Snowy was throwing snowballs),
Whiskers noticed Buttercup walking across the street to the park.
"Isn’t that the new girl, Buttercup?" asked Whiskers.
"I think it is," said Snowy, throwing another snowball at the ground. "One, two, three," counted Snowy, "plus two equals five."
"Why don’t we go say hi to her?" asked Whiskers.
"OK, I guess," agreed Snowy.
They walked over to Buttercup.
"Hi," they both said at the same time.
"Hello," answered Buttercup.
The next day at school, Snowy walked over to Whiskers and asked, "Why didn’t you walk with me to school today?"
"I was walking with Buttercup. She called me last night and asked me if I could walk with her," said Whiskers.
"Oh," said Snowy sadly.
At recess time, Snowy walked up to Whiskers and said, "You know, yesterday I was counting snowballs and found that I only had one and one half
friends: Puzzles and you."
"Wait, you mean that I’m only your half friend?" asked Whiskers. "Wait a minute, I think I know what you are trying to say. Do you think that
I’m not your friend anymore because I’m playing with Buttercup now?"
"Well, that’s what I was thinking, am I right?" asked Snowy.
"Of course not. I’m still your friend. It’s just that Buttercup seemed like a really nice girl."
"Hey, I have a great idea. Maybe all four of us can be friends!" said Whiskers.
"Great idea," said Snowy.
* Fourth Place:
Ill because of Bad Math
by Kayla Piehler
age 10, grade 5, Dogwood Hill School, Mrs. Miggels' class,
Oakland, New Jersey, U.S.
Chapter 14
Dimville and the Giant Math Sickness
Now let's see. From what we know already, Jas is the very
intelligent Math Cat. He has had previous visits to Brighttown where all
went well until they needed him to solve the Mathbug's problem. Before
that, he visited Houston where the NASA math doers were to hot to work,
so he had to do that for that city. Then, even before that, on his very
first mission, Jas was needed in Washingting D.C. to figure out the
distance between U.S.A and a distant war country.
Now Jas was walking into Townville when he saw a ghosttown looking place. "Hello? Any one here?" he called.
No one answered and he heard his voice echo. He walked on for a little longer but saw nothing but desert and a completely deserted town.
Jas was about to leave when a little old lady took him by surprise. "Are you Jas the Mathcat Cat?" she asked.
"Yes," Jas answered.
"What happened here? Who are you?" he asked.
"I am Straeg. This town fell ill because our math skills fell. You see our unfriendly god turned up and said that he wanted 100 sheets of hard
math problems that would challenge him. No one could make up problems
hard enough for him!" she replied.
"Is that your problem?" he questioned.
"Oh. That's only half of it. Now our friendly god offered us help. But the other god overheard and destroyed our only hope by killing the
friendly god. We didn't give him the math sheet, so he made our city
fall very, very sick. He gave us another chance but this time he wants
200 pages. And the deadline is in one day!" she exclaimed.
"No problem!" Jas said.
He helped Straeg (since the others were ill and in bed) come up with 200 pages of very difficult math questions. They delivered them to the
god and he was very satisfied indeed.
"Very well then. I will restore Townville's health," he boomed.
All at once, in a whoosh of purple-blue smoke, Townville was as good as new.
Straeg and the others must have treated Jas like a god for he didn't leave until he was called to. When he did leave - Straeg thanked him at
least a hundred times before letting him go. "Good luck!" the townsfolk
shouted.
Chapter 15
The Story of the Math Balls at Rentoi
Now Jas was.....................
* Fifth Place:
The Helpful Math Cat
by James T.
age 6, grade 1, Walden Elementary School, Mrs. Collins' class,
Montgomery, New York, U.S.
When the Math Cats came to town I was doing my homework. Of course it was math, so a cat named Jeffery asked me if I needed help with my
homework.
I said, "Yes, please."
So Jeffery helped me with my homework, then my mom checked it to see if all the problems were correct.
She said, "Good job, James and Jeffery." Then she gave Jeffery a cat treat with water and I got cookies and some apple juice.
So Jeffery and I went to school the next day. This sheet was getting graded, so I gave it to my teacher, and she graded it and I got an A+.
She said, "Did those wonderful cats help you?"
I said, "Yes, Mrs. Collins."
She said, "What wonderful, helpful cats."
____________________
These top entries (above) receive special large Math Cats certificates, and the other finalists (below) receive smaller certificates.
____________________
* Other Finalists
When the Math Cats Came to Town
Madeline Pilato
age 8, grade 3, homeschooled, New London, Connecticut
When the Math Cats came to town, they got straight to work getting settled.
Buttercup counted buttercups with her paws to do math. She counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and so on.
Meanwhile, Muffin was counting muffins to do his math. It was winter, and Snowy was playing in the snow. It was Christmas eve, and Ginger was
in her basket reading.
Meanwhile, Penrose was trying to solve this problem,"86 x 7." Whiskers was counting his whiskers, and Milky was counting milk bottles for her
math. Chocolate was counting chocolates, and Cocoa was making hot
chocolate.
The next day was Christmas. They all got up and ran down to the living room where they opened presents and ate breakfast.
Snowy was wearing a brand new coat. Cocoa had a new whisk. Chocolate had a new bowl. Whiskers had a calculator. Muffin had some muffin mix.
Ginger had a new book. Milky had a new bottle of milk, and Buttercup
had some seeds.
By then it was time for lunch, and they ate some yummy bacon. Then they went outside and had a snowball fight! Then Buttercup spotted
their friend Sierra, a sweet kitty from South Carolina.
They went inside because Sierra did not like snowball fights. Instead they played Math War, Cranium, Risk and Hide N Seek. Then it was time
for dinner and bed.
That night, Whiskers got up and went and wrote this: "Dearest Kitty, Come over when you can - I have lots to tell you. Love, Whiskers."
Then he went back to bed.
The next day, Kitty came, all the way from Oregon! They played Risk again, and they all went to a museum. Then Kitty and Sierra went home.
After that they went home and ate lunch, and then they made a snowcat. Afterwards, Cocoa noticed that his whisk was missing. They looked all
over for it, but they could not find it.
It was time for dinner by now.
The next day they looked and looked for it again, until Cocoa
remembered he had left it outside. They dug and dug in the snow until they found it. Then it was time to eat lunch.
My Kitty Story
by Amanda T.
age 13, grade 8, Lisha Kill Middle School, Mrs. Frank's class, Albany, New York, U.S.
Once upon a time there lived three cats in this little town called Colonie that was located in New York. These cats were named Fluffy,
HairBall, and Midnight. They all had these names for different reasons.
Fluffy had this name because he was so fluffy and could use his
"fluffiness" to get whatever he wanted. HairBall had her name because
she was always coughing up hairballs and her hairballs got people to
give her more affection and love and BEST of all ATTENTION! Midnight
was named his name because he was born at exactly midnight and when it
ever turned midnight he would always be up and he would do something
interesting........ No one ever found out what Midnight might be doing
when it turns midnight.
All of these cats had something in common. They all had special magical mathematical powers. These cats all met when they were babies
((kittens)) in a nursery. From that day on they had been best friends
ever since.
One day they were in school and one of the cats came into the class and reported Midnight missing. This was one of the most upsetting times that
had ever happened in Fluffy and Hairball's life.
The next day they were sitting in math class and they were passing "notes" ((purrs)) and they were wondering if Midnight's disappearance
had anything to do with what happens or what Midnight does when it hits
12:00 a.m. This was a job for Math Blasters. This was the club that the
three created in their third year of knowing each other. This was the
club that would have to solve problems and solve mysteries and then in
their hearts, they solved it and they knew what really happened. This
time the club would have to be done with only two cats, but these two
cats would have the time and would have the courage to figure out what
happened to their best friend Midnight.
It was the next afternoon at Fluffy's house and they were deciding who was staying at whose house tonight so they have more time to figure out
what, when, where, why, who, how? Those were the questions that they
were trying to figure out.
During that night, they came up with the following information.
WHO - Midnight
WHAT - Missing
But they knew that there was more information to go along with these
subjects.
Over the course of the next three weeks, they kept searching for clues in math class where Midnight was last seen, Midnight's house,
interveiwing Midnight's parents ((Mom and Dad)) and they searched and
looked everywhere.
Finally after four weeks of long searching and figuring out, the Math Blasters had figured it out.
who - Midnight and grandparents
what - going and visiting them - they were sick
when - over the course of three weeks
how - train
why - they were sick and Midnight wanted to spend time with them
where - Florida
The case was solved. MATH BLASTERS HAD DONE IT AGAIN!
When the Math Cats Came to Town
by Megan S.
age 8, grade 3, Saint Margurite D'You Ville, Mrs. Jessica Kendy's class,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
While Miranda went walking down the street, she saw some graffiti on the wall. It was all math.
She said, "What bad people, who likes math these days?"
Marrissa overherd Miranda whispering. She said, "It is bad the people did graffiti, and a lot of people use math!!!"
"Like who?" asked Miranda. "Who would want to use math?"
Marrissa soon answered, "Me, I do. You, you do too!"
"Why would I want to use math? It is soooooo boring!!!" said Miranda."
"Well, you know your favourite game? You know the cashier person?" said Marrissa. "The one that you want to be when you grow up? The real cashier at 'Moniqua's Cards' doesn't tell you how much for the change!"
Miranda paused and thought a little bit, then soon after replied and said, "Maybe I should memorize those math facts, then we can go get Robert to ask him who did that graffiti, since he knows all the people in town that do graffiti!"
The girls rushed to ask Robert who asked the two girls what number they saw. They said "We saw an eight."
Then Robert found the answer of 8 x 8. He asked the girls, "What is 8 x 8?"
While Miranda was trying to find out, it boomed on Marrissa what Robert was trying to tell Miranda!!!
"64," Marrissa said brilliantly."You are trying to tell her that math can also be used for secret codes!"
Miranda loved secret codes! She always sent them to Marrissa and Robert during class! Miranda studied math with her parents Monday through Friday. She now was the best at math in her class!
Three weeks after she finished second grade Miranda asked Robert, "Remember the day when Marrissa and I asked you who did the graffiti on the wall? You asked us to do math but never told us who did the graffiti."
Robert blushed. He was the one who did the graffiti!
"I did," he said in a weak voice.
"You set me up!!! Maybe I should just quit math!!!"
"NO!!! Well, I did set you up but for a good reason!!! You can't blame someone for doing a good deed!"
Milo the Math Cat Comes to Town
by Megan Fisette
age 10, grade 4, homeschooled, Woodbine, Georgia, U.S.
Once upon a time there was boy named Timmy who had trouble with his math. Milo the Math Cat heard about Timmy's trouble with math so he
came to town to help him.
As you may know, only children can see and hear Math Cats. So when Milo came to town, the children saw him and heard him singing his songs.
The children said, "Look at that cat! He's singing!" The adults told the children not to be silly and they had an active imagination and stuff like that.
When Milo got to Timmy's house he knocked on the door. Timmy heard and looked outside the window and saw a cat just sitting there. Timmy ran and got his Mom and Dad and told them there was a cat outside that knocked on the door!
Timmy's Mom and Dad went to see and said there was nothing there.
Timmy said, "Don't you see that cat? He's right there!"
Timmy's Mom and Dad told him he had an active imagination and left.
"I wonder why Mom and Dad didn't see that cat outside?" Timmy thought to himself. "Oh well." Then Timmy figured he should open the door and let the cat in. So Timmy opened the door and Milo came in.
Milo said, "Hi. I'm Milo the Math Cat. I heard you're having trouble with math. Is that true?"
"Yes, that's true," said Timmy.
Then Milo taught Timmy all his math songs and Timmy never had
trouble with math again.
When the Math Cats Came to Town
by Hannah Elaine Taylor
age 8, grade 4, homeschooled, Ringgold, Georgia, U.S.
It was a hot and sticky July day and Snowball was rolling snowballs around. {Snowball's snowballs can't melt.}
The cats' names were Ginger, Snowball, Whiskers, Smokey, and Fuzzball the kitten.
Fuzzball was tired of sitting around. She decided to go for a walk. So she asked if the others would come. So the others agreed.
They were walking along. They saw a town and they decided to explore the place.
While they were in town they played games and had lots of fun. Life seemed perfect in town.
Snowball liked to count snowballs.
Ginger liked to measure liquid amounts.
Smokey liked to count puffs of smoke.
Whiskers counted his whiskers of 1,000.
Fuzzball counted fuzzballs.
The next day Fuzzball went to Midnight's house. Midnight was doing math when Fuzzball came in. {Midnight does math by counting stars.}
His mother said he had to finish his math before he could play. When Midnight was finished with his math the two went out to play.
That night Fuzzball spent the night with Midnight. The two had lots of fun.
Math Cats in the Town Mathville
by Kristina B.
age 10, grade 4, Brownell - Talbot School, Mrs. Eastman's class
Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Once upon a time there were three cats named Multiplication, Division, and Addition. They were best friends and lived in the town called
Mathville.
"How was school, Multiplication?" asked Division.
"Great!" exclaimed Multiplication.
"Mine was so horrible. We had to do math all day long. I practically fell asleep. My claws were aching because I wrote so many things," said
Addition tiredly.
They then went to go to a restaurant called Mathlifer.
"Hey Addition, Multiplication, and Divison! How are you?" said the store keeper.
"I am just having so much trouble in math," said Addition sadly.
"Well, I can help you," said the store keeper. The store keeper went to the back room and asked the cats to come with him. They all sat down by
the computer. "Look at this website. It's called Yahooligans and you just type in math and they have the coolest games for math!" exclaimed the store keeper.
They explored Yahooligans, and when they all got home, Addition went straight to the computer and explored Yahooligans for two hours.
Then it was morning.
"Hey Addition," said Division and Multiplication. "Geesh, you have another day of math. Aren't you sad you will get bad grades?" said Division.
"Nope," said Addition, and they went to school.
When they got home, Addition showed everybody all his 100%. They were all so happy that Addition was doing well in math.
Fun with Math Cats
by Jessica P.
age 12, grade 7, R.C.M.S., Ms. Ellas's class, Randouph, Massachusetts, U.S.
The Math Cats come all happy and loud, shouting and yelling in their mathcatmobile - black, white, silver, blue and red streaks down the
sides of the automobile. They go to every home, rapping at the windows
and crying in the lanes, until a girl comes out to play. Her hair is
gold and she is wearing a new pink dress covered in yellow flowers.
The cats told her, "We're the cats that know the math. We're the pets you just can't have. The wonderful, amazing, and intelligent Math Cats.
We are here to make math a fun game that all want to play."
"You can't make math fun," the little girl said.
"Oh yes we can!" did they say. "With games and more for all to enjoy. Math will be the hit of the town."
"Let me just round up a few friends, and I'll be back."
She hurried away and rounded up five friends. They hurried right back to see what would happen.
"See you're back, but why so soon? You needed eight, but we'll work with six," said the cats.
They told the game, played it once, and ran away.
Just before they left, they said, "We'll be back, you can count on that. Who knows when, how, or why. But we'll be back or we're not the
wonderful, amazing and intelligent Math Cats you first met!" And they said their good-byes all at one time. They made all sorts of noise as they left, getting louder the farther they went, until they were gone.
"Good-bye, Math Cats! And thank you for the wonderful, amazing and supreme time! Fare well, great friends. Hope you're back soon!"
And then all was lost forever until they would return.
Math Cats Come to Town
by Nomi S.
age 8, grade 3, Prairie View School, Mrs. Bock and Ms. Baldus's class,
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, U.S.
When Scotti Dog was walking to town he saw a cat - a silver cat with black and gray stripes. Scotti was a black and gray dog so he thought
she was the prettiest cat.
Scotti Dog walked to the silver cat and asked her name. She said her name was Alni. Scotti Dog asked if she had friends. She said she had
bunches of cat friends! Not just any cat friends, Math Cat friends!
Soon cats started coming from all over, but none of them were as silver as Alni. The other dogs started to laugh at Scotti Dog because he liked
the silver cat.
Soon the other cats were jealous of Alni because they didn't have any dog friends. So the other cats decided to make the dogs like them. Another cat started to go to school and learn math. The other cats followed. Soon all the cats were math whizzes!
All the dogs were jealous that they couldn't do math. They all asked the Math Cats for help with their math. Now all the cats and dogs had
friends!!
Multiplication!
by Erika Galluzzo
age 10, grade 4, North School, Mrs. Anderson's class,
Londonderry, New Hampshire, U.S.
One day my cat Ally went outside. She went in the forest. While Ally was in the forest something bad happened - the numbers 29 x 5 jumped out
of the middle of the forest and would not let Ally go past until she
solved 29 x 5!
"Oh no!" exclaimed Ally. "How am I possibly going to figure out 29 x 5!" Ally said, "Maybe I should calm down and do it out. 5 x 9 is 45.
Put down the 5 and carry the 4. 2 x 5 = 10... + 4 = 14. I did it!"
"The answer is 145!" she told the numbers. They let her go through, and she continued her journey through the woods.
Cats
by Stephen S.
age 11, grade 6, Aberdeen Middle School, Mr. O'Connor's class,
Aberdeen, Maryland, U.S.
There once was a cat that could multiply, but he couldn't add, so his friends told him how! But they told him how to subtract instead of
adding. So when he went to the store to shop for some clothes, but he
only had $20.00!!!
So he bought a shirt for $5.99
a pair of pants for $20.00
some socks for $4.79
and some underwear for $3.99
He thought that his total would be $5.02. Then he gets up to the register. The clerk said "$35.07 please."
"Please," he said. "No way. I only have $20.00."
So then he only got the pair of pants. Then he went and found someone to teach him to add.
When Math Came and Made Me Think
by Alexis Harvey
age 8, grade 3, Morehead School, Mr. McBroom's class,
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
It was a regular old school day. My teacher was talking about math. He called on me. He said, "What is two times two?"
I was daydreaming and something hit me. I started counting by 2s.
After school my friends asked me, "What was with you?"
I just walked off. I looked around. I saw cats.
They said, "Want to know what happened? We gave you the gift of math."
So we had fun together. We played math games. Then they had to leave.
I said, "I will miss you."
"We will too."
They took a flying math book and flew off.
Elisa's Pussy with Maths
by Elisa G.
age 13, grade 9, Mathew Humberstone School, Miss Curtain's class,
Grimsby, England
Lucy my cat is absolutely mad whenever I am doing maths. She seems to stare at me. But when I am doing anything but maths she never stares at
me. So I wrote a story about her and this is how it goes.
One morning I laid in - at least I thought I was going to. Lucy decided to wake me for a cuddle. Suddenly Lucy went to my school bag and dragged
out my maths book. But I am glad she did because I forgot to do my homework. So I sat down and did maths homework all morning.
In the afternoon she seemend to follow me everywhere with my maths book in her mouth. It had been the most unusual day.
That story is based on a day where Lucy did do that sort of thing.
* Who judged the contest?
Wendy Petti, the mother of the Math Cats, narrowed the entries down to 17 finalists. Then the five top winners were chosen by three children:
* Jasmin Floyd, age 9 (you can read more about her below)
* Emily P., age 8 (who is pictured in the Math Crafts section)
* Evan Hiller, age 9
* We're helping a special friend of Math Cats, too!
In addition to the first prize and the certificates for the top 5 winners and other finalists, Wendy of Math Cats made a donation to the IFOPA in honor of the kids who wrote the top three entries and in honor of Jasmin Floyd, one of our judges. You can learn about this worthy cause on the main contest page.
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