Math Concepts: Place value, Rounding
Paul Bunyan
At two weeks old, gigantic Paul Bunyan
took his first steps. He was so big that he set
off earthquakes in Maine. In fact, almost any
move he made caused the earth to shake. So
his parents put his cradle in the ocean to protect
the state.
“He’s causing tidal waves now,” said the
townsfolk. Sure enough, Paul’s hiccups stirred
up the water and made huge waves.
That’s how he ended up in the backwoods of
Minnesota, taking care of himself. For twenty years,
Paul did pretty darn good on his own. But then came
the year of the big blue snow.
On a night that would have made a polar bear shiver,
Paul went out in the freezing cold. All of a sudden, he
heard a moaning sound under a huge snowdrift. Paul
investigated, and to his surprise, he pulled out a blue ox.
“Come with me,” he said picking up the ox, which
was nearly as big as Paul himself.
Paul took care of that ox until he had nursed it back
to health. Babe the Blue Ox, as he called her, licked his face
and followed him everywhere. That’s how Paul made his
first friend. And a big friend she was! By the time Babe
was full grown, the distance between her horns was
42 axe handles long.
One day, Paul discovered that he could cut down a
forest of trees with just a few swipes of his axe. In those
days, people needed wood for their homes, and no one
was thinking about saving trees.
“Let’s you and me take those logs down the river in
Minnesota and get them to a sawmill,” Paul said to Babe.
(Continued)
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Tall Tale Math © 2013 by Betsy Franco, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Paul Bunyan
Math Concepts: Place value, Rounding
While they were out and about, the two leveled
Kansas and Iowa, clearing out trees so the farmers there
could raise crops. Since they could walk a mile in one
step, this was only a week’s work for Paul and Babe.
Back in Minnesota, after they had rolled thousands
of logs down the river, Paul said, “It’s time to get
some help and make some friends, Babe. Let’s start a
logging camp.”
Hiring lumberjacks to help him was one of the
best decisions Paul ever made. But it was a good thing
he was a problem solver, because clever thinking was
needed to feed and house thousands of men.
Paul built a chow table so long that it took a week
for a dish to get from one end to the other. He made a
frying pan the size of an ice-skating rink. One hundred
men would strap bacon to their skates to grease it.
And with all those thirsty men around, Paul had
to dig out five big holes to fill with water so everyone
would have enough to drink. Those waterholes are
known as the Great Lakes today.
Paul’s problem solving also came in real handy
when the coldest winter of all nearly stopped the work
at the camp.
“You’ve all got to grow your beards long enough
to reach your feet,” Paul told his lumberjacks. “Then
you can knit your beards into socks to keep your feet
from freezing.” Sure enough, his plan worked, and the
logging went on.
Years later, Paul and Babe made their way to
Oregon where they settled down to retire.
If old Paul were still around today, he’d most likely
be using his problem-solving skills to grow and increase
the forests . . . with Babe’s help, of course. For sure, he’d
have some mighty good ideas about how to do that!
Tall Tale Math © 2013 by Betsy Franco, Scholastic Teaching Resources
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Name ________________________________________ Date _____________________________
Paul Bunyan
1. Each step Paul Bunyan took was 5,280 feet long—that’s one mile!
The 2 in 5,280 is in the hundreds place. Its value is 200.
Fill in the answers to the following:
The 5 is in the ________________________ place. Its value is _________.
The 8 is in the ________________________ place. Its value is _________.
The 0 is in the ________________________ place. Its value is _________.
2. One morning, the cook made 10,000 pancakes. Then he made 4,000 more,
then 600, then 50, and finally 7 more.
How many pancakes did he make in all? ______________
3. A stew recipe called for 5,026 cups of salt, but the cook didn’t see the zero.
How much salt did the cook put in the stew? _______________________
What is the value of 5 in that number? _______________________
This table shows how deep
Paul dug out the five waterholes
(shown by the name they go by
today). Use the table to complete
questions 4–7.
Waterhole
Depth
Lake Superior Lake Michigan Lake Huron Lake Erie
Lake Ontario
1,332 feet
925 feet
751 feet
210 feet
802 feet
4. Which depth has a 2 in the hundreds place? ____________________
5. Which depth has a 5 in the tens place? ____________________
6. Round the depth of each of these lakes to the nearest 100:
Lake Superior __________________
Lake Huron __________________
7. Put all of the lakes in order from shallowest to deepest.
______________________, ______________________, ______________________,
______________________, ______________________
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Tall Tale Math © 2013 by Betsy Franco, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Name ________________________________________ Date _____________________________
Paul Bunyan
(Continued)
8. The distance between Babe’s horns was 42 axe handles, or 1,482.6 feet.
Here’s how that number looks in a place-value chart:
thousands
hundreds
tens
ones
1
4
8
2
.
.
tenths
6
What is the value of each of these numbers?
4: ____________________________ 2: ____________________________
6: ____________________________ 8: ____________________________
9. Paul Bunyan made a giant fry pan to cook pancakes for his lumberjacks.
The pan measured 2,174.35 feet across! Write that number in the
place-value chart below.
thousands
hundreds
tens
ones
.
.
tenths
hundredths
What is the value of each of these numbers?
2: ____________________________ 7: ____________________________
5: ____________________________ 3: ____________________________
10. The food servers wore roller skates so they could get the warm meals to
the workers quickly. One day, Paul used his giant watch to see how long
it took to deliver some of the meals.
Here are the times he clocked:
Order the times from
longest to shortest:
5.95 minutes
____________________________
5.59 minutes
____________________________
5.92 minutes
____________________________
5.52 minutes
____________________________
5.99 minutes
____________________________
Tall Tale Math © 2013 by Betsy Franco, Scholastic Teaching Resources
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Answers
Paul Bunyan
page 10
1. thousands, 5,000; tens, 80; ones, 0
2. 14,657 pancakes
3. 526 cups; 500 (or 5 hundred)
4. 210 feet
5. 751 feet
6. 1,300; 800
7. Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario,
Lake Michigan, Lake Superior
page 11
8. 400 (or 4 hundreds); 2 (or 2 ones); 6 tenths;
80 (or 8 tens)
9. Students should write the numbers in the
place-value chart in this order: 2 (thousands);
1 (hundreds); 7 (tens); 4 (ones); 3 (tenths);
5 (hundredths)
2,000 (or 2 thousands); 70 (or 7 tens);
5 hundredths; 3 tenths
10. 5.99 minutes; 5.95 minutes; 5.92 minutes;
5.59 minutes; 5.52 minutes
Tall Tale Math © 2013 by Betsy Franco, Scholastic Teaching Resources
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