Can You Count in Greek?: Exploring Ancient Number Systems, Grades 5-8

Discovering the way people in ancient cultures conducted their lives is fascinating for young people, and learning how these people counted and calculated is a part of understanding these cultures. This book offers a concise, but thorough, introduction to ancient number systems. Students won't just learn to count like the ancient Greeks; they'll learn about the number systems of the Mayans, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Romans, as well as learning Hindu-Arabic cultures and quinary and binary systems. Symbols and rules regarding the use of the symbols in each number system are introduced and demonstrated with examples. Activity pages provide problems for the students to apply their understanding of each system. Can You Count in Greek? is a great resource for math, as well as a supplement for social studies units on ancient civilizations.

This valuable resource builds understanding of place value, number theory, and reasoning. It includes everything you need to easily incorporate these units in math or social studies classes. Whether you use all of the units or a select few, your students will gain a better understanding and appreciation of our number system.

Grades 5-8

Judy Leimbach received her master's degree in Instructional Strategies in Gifted Education from National-Louis University. She has 14 years of experience teaching in regular classrooms, kindergarten through fifth grade, and 14 years experience teaching gifted students in grades 1-5. In addition, she has spent 5 years supervising groups of student teachers at Wheaton College.
When she first started teaching in a gifted program, there were few materials available for gifted students in primary grades, so Leimbach began writing her own and had several books published. Having previously taught in the regular classroom, she also was very aware of the need for high quality, easy-to-use materials for regular classroom teachers to use for their gifted students in both primary and intermediate grades. She began working with other teachers, including her daughter, a middle school math teacher, to develop materials to meet that need.

Kathy Leimbach received a degree in Math Education from Valparaiso University and a master's degree in Education from National-Louis University. She taught math at Glen Crest Middle School in Glen Ellyn, IL for 34 years. She retired in June 2015.