Did you know that a Three Dog Night refers to a night so cold that you need three dogs in the bed to keep you warm?  It comes from Australian Aboriginal custom of keeping dogs in the bed in order to stay warm.

Who knew?

I was thinking that it would be a really great idea to explore expressions that are used in everyday life that are also mathematical.

This winter, when discussing the weather, rather than having children simply say, “It is cold,” or “It is windy” you could teach them the expression Three Dog Night to describe a really, really cold night.  Using variations of this, a cold night might be a One Dog Night, and a really cold night might be a Two Dog Night.  These gradations of cold and relativity will support the idea that there are measures of cold – there is cold, colder, and coldest.

It might be nice to provide a visual representation of this concept as well.  You could use stuffed dogs and the children can pick one, two, or three dogs to represent the coldness (they may even choose a No Dog Night if it ever warms up).  If you use a weather chart, you could use dog stickers and the children can put one, two, or three dogs to represent the weather.

Let us know how it goes.  Take a picture and I will post it:)