Assign your students a short novel or a poem where the main character takes a trip. For example, you might select "The Crazy Horse Electric Chair" by Chris Crutcher or or "Sarah, Plain and Tall" by Patricia MacLachan. Both stories involve main characters going on a journey. Therefore, ask students to conduct research to find out the cost of items at the time and place of the story, and to calculate an overall cost of the trip.
Introduce students where there is a problem to solve, such as in "Jumangi" by Chris Van Allsburg, where a character gets trapped in time and space. Teach students how to gather evidence, propose a solution, and use that solution to solve a problem. After completing that lesson, assign them some word problems in mathematics. Encourage them to follow the same steps. They should assess the question, figure out the best method for solving it and then actually solve it.
Bring in an assortment of young children's books for your students, such as "The Three Little Pigs" or a copy of the poem "Three Blind Mice." Although the numbers are quite clear in these story, ask the students to come up with a way that they could use the story to teach younger students about numbers. Assign each of them a "buddy" from preschool or kindergarten, and let them work with the younger student to teach her numbers through utilizing the books.
Have your students read a novel where a mathematical problem is posed in the text of the book. One such example is Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." The main character poses what is known as the Monty Hall Problem. When they get to that part of the book, ask students to try to come up with a solution, and to state what is wrong with the answers that Christopher proposes.