Meet Team Ten!

I’m Zero the Hero! Though I am the baby number, I keep the team together as the team leader. In the history of math, my discovery allowed the other numbers to become more powerful by expressing values greater than 9. I love all things oval, including the Milky Way, and my favorite spot is the location where the Prime Meridian crosses the Equator. I will be a manager and team leader.

I like the Mayan numbering system since it included a zero, and I can also tell you about how the Brahmi system traveled to Europe by the Arabs to create the base 10 system used worldwide today.

Zero

I’m number 1! I’m a bit boastful, but also lonely at times. I feel like I come from Mespotamia, where the Babylonians recorded the first written numbering system using clay tablets and a stylus. Today you can use your finger as the stylus on the electronic tablet!

I love tall skinny buildings – you may guess why! My favorite animal is the Arctic narwhal with its single long tusk. I like the shape of an egg with one point and one yolk. My goal is to be a politician, surgeon or trial attorney. Sometimes the rest of the team has to tell me not to always run to the front of the line, since I love to be first!

One

1 wants to teach you about

writing technology over the centuries:

Ancient tablet and stylus…

…modern tablet and stylus.

1 wants to teach you about

writing technology over the centuries:

I’m number 2! I enjoy everything that comes in pairs, like camels with two humps. Since Rome was founded by the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, I like to talk about Roman numerals. I identify with the heart shape, with its two sides, and also because I am the empathetic member of the team. I will be a teacher or nurse when I grow up.

Two

I’m number 3! I add stability to the team like triangles do to buildings. I love to talk about the Great Pyramids of Giza, the oldest standing structures created by humans. My favorite animal is the 3-toed sloth from South America. I like the Three Blind Mice, Three Musketeers, and the three witches of Macbeth. I play the musical triangle. Since triangles are the “sacred shape” of architecture, I aspire to be a builder or architect.

Three

I’m number 4 – the team geek and proud of it! Because of my glasses with four sides (did you notice?), some folks call me “four-eyes.” I love the painter Mondrian, since his paintings include lots of rectangles and squares. I never get lost because I know the four directions.

With four the sacred number of the Navajo Nation, I like to tell the story of the Navajo Code Talkers. I will be an engineer, physicist, mathematician, or cartographer. A four fun fact: The four-color theorem proves that all maps can be colored with only 4 colors.

Four

I’m proud to be number 5! I love everything military, especially the US Pentagon and all 5-star generals. I also hang out with firemen to assist in opening pentagon-shaped fire hydrants, and I use my 5 senses wherever I go. I like the logo of the Olympics because of its 5 interlocking rings.

I enjoy tallying since it uses 5 marks--4 dashes and a 5th cross hatch mark--as well as the Asian calculator based on 5’s, called an abacus. I like to visit Angkor Wat since it includes 5 center spires, a design known as a quincunx. My 5-fingered hand sends you “High five!”

Five

I’m number 6! I love crystals and hexagon-shaped items: snowflakes, bee hives, and lots of floor tiles! I look forward to being a scientist and like to talk about Antarctica due to its ice cover as the “frozen continent.” I love chemical formulae with hexagons and remind all that Carbon is the 6th element of the Periodic Table of the Elements.

I also like to compose music with my hexagon-shaped pencil and then play it on my 6-stringed guitar. I raise bees and love to hunt for bugs with their 6 legs.

Six

I’m number 7 – the team rogue from the Seven Seas! I wear a mustache and sail the seven seas looking for the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. I like that there are seven days of the week and that rainbows have seven colors. Did you know that the Statue of Liberty has 7 rays on her crown to represent the seven seas and/or the seven continents?

I am the lucky number of the western world, as the most likely amount when a pair of dice is rolled. I like to recite the Seven Stages of Man sonnet by Shakespeare. When I grow up I will be a real estate developer or entrepreneur as I like to take risks.

Seven

I’m number 8! Since I’m the lucky number of China, I love everything Chinese – especially the Beijing Olympics which started on 8/8/08 at 8:08:08 in the evening. My favorite animal is the octopus. I love stop signs since they are red octagons in shape and octagonal houses built in the USA and Canada during the 1850’s.

Sometimes I scare people with 8-legged spiders! I will be an international trader as I love global business.

Eight

I’m number 9! You know me as the team fashionista as I am “dressed to the nines.” I go “the whole 9 yards” and love cats with their 9 lives. My favorite sport is baseball with its 9 innings and team of 9 players. I like visiting the Kowloon area of Hong Kong as it means “9 dragons” in Chinese. I like to discuss the Quipu knot-based numbering system of the Incas since it looks like jewelry. I aspire to be a fashion designer or model, or lead a TV reality show.

Nine

Number Links: Animals

0- glass lizard1- narwhal2- camel3- three-toed sloth4- kitten5- starfish6- bee in honeycomb7- ladybug8- octopus9- nine-spotted moth

Number Links: Musical Instruments

0- drum (North America)1- ektara (India)2- ehru (China)3- balalaika (Russia)4- ukelele (Hawaii)5- banjo (orig. Africa)6- guitar (Spain)7- guqin (China)8- mandolin (Italy)9- kelstone (Belgium)

Number Links: Shapes

Number Links: Dominos

Number Links: Sign Language

World Numbers Poster

World Numbers Poster: List of Rim Languages(clockwise from top left)

Slovenian, Albanian, Belarussian, Tajik, Latvian, Czech, Danish, Dutch & Flemish, Zulu, Macedonian, Filipino, Yiddish, Latin, Lithuanian, Hmong, Telugu, Serbian, Norwegian, Hungarian, Haitian Creole, Romanian, Kurdish, Estonian, Hawaiian, Gujarati, Ukrainian, Afrikaans, Galician, Persian/Farsi/Dari, Uzbek, Turkmen, Georgian, Armenian, Kikuyu, Samoan, Kazakh.

Kids love their number friends!