 | An easy, flexible, 25-minute musical play for grades 2-6. Comes with the script, audio recording (with both a vocal and instrumental version of each song), and a teacher's guide. No music or drama experience needed! |
 | ✓ Funny script ✓ Catchy tunes ✓ Flexible casting ✓ Dumb jokes
Clueless Sherlock Holmes learns the basics of detective work by mastering six useful math problem-solving strategies. Learn more! |
MusicalGr. 2-625 Min.
Musical Play: “Mastering Math”
Complete Script & Audio: $45 (other items also available)
We sell wonderful, short, funny plays and musicals for use in your classroom, after-school program, drama club, music class, summer school program, homeschool, and any other place where kids can thrive by participating in theater! If you are not familiar with us or how to use theater to teach, check out our Q&As.
Synopsis
This is the story of how Sherlock Holmes became a detective! Well, actually it's the story of how he learned to solve problems, which allowed him to become a detective. Sherlock is terrified of numbers, but in the course of solving a Top Secret mystery, he learns six problem-solving strategies—guess and check, draw a picture, draw a chart, look for a pattern, work backwards, and act it out—plus the four steps to solve any problem. Your students will learn right along with Sherlock and after the show may even choose a career in private detection.
Preview the script and songs!Key Concepts
- Four steps to problem-solving
- Problem-solving techniques:
- Guess and Check
- Make a Table or Chart
- Work Backwards
- Act It Out
- Draw a Picture
- Find a Pattern
Mastering Math is a great complement to your curriculum resources in elementary and middle school math. And, like all of our plays, this show can be used to improve reading, vocabulary, reading comprehension, performance and music skills, class camaraderie and teamwork, and numerous social skills (read about it!) -- all while enabling students to be part of a truly fun and creative experience they will never forget!
Aligned with national standards! View the standards and vocabulary.Publication Info
Author: Ron Fink (Composer) and John Heath (Book and Lyrics)
ISBN:
978-1-886588-30-1
© 2004
Bad Wolf Press, LLC
3 reviews for Musical Play: “Mastering Math”
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The Show
We want you to know what you're getting, so the cast list and first third of the script are available here! Bad Wolf shows are written for flexibility and can be edited however you like to meet the needs of your actors, school, curriculum, parents, astrological chart, latest whim, etc. If you have questions about the portions of the script not shown, please contact us.
Casting
Flexible casting from 11-40 students. Use as many Bicycle Store Clerks, School Kids, etc. as desired. Actors can easily play several roles, or a single role can be divided between multiple actors. All parts can be played by any gender.
CHARACTERS:
Sherlock Holmes
Dr. Watson
Clients
Bankers
Bicycle Store Clerks
Brother
Three Sisters
Passersby School Kids
Math Teachers
and a CHORUS composed of all students who are not
playing roles on stage at the time.
This show also requires the use of an overhead projector in several scenes, and we recommend that one student be chosen to put the transparencies in place at the appropriate moments.
Script
This is the first one-third of the script.
(Class faces audience and sings)
Song 1
Listen to
a sample!
CLASS:
This is a show about Sherlock Holmes
And how he got his start
This is a show about Sherlock Holmes
And how he got so smart.
This is the story of Sherlock Holmes
And his first mystery
This is the story of Sherlock Holmes
So sit back and you’ll see—
He’s mastering math
Mastering math
It’s just a matter of finding the path
Mastering math
He learns more each day
He’s problem solving the problems away.
He’s mastering math
Mastering math
It’s just a matter of finding the path
Mastering math
He learns more each day
He’s problem solving the problems away.
(SINGERS can lean left and then right, or wave their
hands to each side, as they sing the following lines.
Make it silly!)
Oooh
Aaaah
Oooh
Ohhh
Oooh
Aaah
Oooh
Ohhh
He’s mastering math
Mastering math
It’s just a matter of finding the path
Mastering math
He learns more each day
He’s problem solving the problems away.
He’s solving the problems away.
(SHERLOCK HOLMES is walking around a room looking at things through what should be a large magnifying glass. WATSON enters.)
WATSON: Ah, there you are Holmes. What are you examining?
HOLMES: Come over here, Dr. Watson. I’ve discovered something most peculiar. Everything I see through this magnifying glass looks the same.
WATSON: How odd. May I have a look?
HOLMES (hands it over to WATSON, who begins to look): No matter where I point it, I see the same thing. It’s like some silly face is staring back at me.
WATSON: This isn’t a magnifying glass. It’s a mirror.
HOLMES: It is?
WATSON: Take a look.
(Hands mirror to HOLMES, who looks into it)
HOLMES: Aaaach. By Jove, you’re right! I never knew I had such large nostrils. It’s horrifying.
WATSON: Nonsense, Holmes. You have perfectly normal nostrils. Delightful nostrils. British nostrils!
HOLMES: Don’t try to cheer me up. I’m just not getting the hang of this detective stuff.
WATSON: You’ll make a wonderful detective. You just need more practice. What do you say we do some word problems?
HOLMES: No, please, Watson. You know what happens.
WATSON: Just one. Really, you can do it. Here. A train leaves London going west at forty miles an hour. Another train leaves on the same track from fifty miles west of London going 30 miles an hour. How long is it before they hit each other.
(HOLMES is silent. He looks as if he is thinking deeply— or in great pain—but he is not moving. After a few seconds, WATSON speaks.)
WATSON: Holmes? Holmes?
(HOLMES passes out, collapsing on the floor. WATSON revives him.)
WATSON: Wake up. Come on, let me help you up.
HOLMES: It’s no use. No one will hire me as a detective. I’ll never learn how to solve problems:
Song 2
Listen to
a sample!
I, I just want to solve a mystery
What a great detective I could be
But when problems have a number
I cannot get any dumber.
CLASS (suddenly sitting up straight and facing audience) :
Woh oh oh oh oh oh
Woh oh oh oh oh oh
HOLMES:
I, I just want to solve a mystery
Solve a famous crime or two or three
But my brain just stops and fidgets
When I have to work with digits.
HOLMES and WATSON:
I don’t know what to do
I haven’t got a clue.
My palms get cold and wet
My eyeballs, my eyeballs, my eyeballs start to sweat.
I, I just want to solve a mystery
What a great detective I could be
But when problems have a number
I cannot get any dumber.
HOLMES, WATSON, and CHORUS:
I don’t know what to do
I haven’t got a clue.
My palms get cold and wet
My eyeballs, my eyeballs, my eyeballs start to sweat.
My eyeballs, my eyeballs, my eyeballs start to sweat.
(Three CLIENTS enter.)
CLIENT #1: Is one of you Sherlock Holmes?
HOLMES: I am. Unless you’ve come to repossess my hat. In that case… (points to WATSON) …HE is.
CLIENT #2: We need your help, Mr. Holmes.
HOLMES: You do? Are you sure?
CLIENT #1: There has been a crime.
CLIENT #3 (dramatically): Oh, the horror!
CLIENT #1 (trying to ignore #3, addressing HOLMES): And we need you to solve it.
CLIENT #2: We work for the King of Plutopia. A Top Secret Document has been stolen from the royal vault.
CLIENT #3: Oh, the horror!
CLIENT #2 (giving #3 a look, then to HOLMES): And we must get it back immediately.
HOLMES: What’s in the document?
CLIENT #2: How should we know?
ALL THREE CLIENTS (shout): It’s a secret!
CLIENT #1: The thief left behind a clue.
(producing a large key)
A key to a safe-deposit box in the Bank of London.
WATSON: Why don’t you just go to the box and open it?
CLIENT #2: There’s no number on the key. And there are thousands of boxes.
CLIENT #3: Oh, the horror!
CLIENT #1 (#1 and #2 stare at #3): But also the thief left a note with a puzzle telling us the number of the box.
HOLMES: Did you say a puzzle? Oh, the horror!
CLIENT #2: Here’s what the note says. (reading) “The prince is now 11 years old. The king is 35. How old was the prince when his father was four times older?”
(HOLMES has that pained look again)
WATSON: Holmes?
(HOLMES passes out. WATSON helps him revive.)
CLIENT #1: Can you help us?
HOLMES: Are you crazy? It could take months to solve. Years, even.
CLIENT #2: Why don’t you try the Guess and Check method?
CLIENT #3: Oh, how fun! I guess 6.
CLIENT #1: It’s not 6.
CLIENT #3: How do you know?
CLIENT #1: I just know.
CLIENT #2: The Guess and Check method can help us figure it out. Let’s try some numbers.
(The problem appears on the overhead. As each number is “tried out,” we see it on the overhead.)
Song 3
Listen to
a sample!
CLIENT #2:
Take a shot
Try a 10
That’s too high?
Then try again.
CLIENT #3: How ’bout six?
CLIENT #1: That’s too low.
CLIENT #3: Not a six?
CLIENT #1: I told you so!
CLIENTS:
Guess and check
Guess and check
Don’t use hunt and peck
Grope and hope leaves things a wreck
Zero in with guess and check.
Try a nine
Let’s explore
Still too high?
Then try once more.
How ’bout eight?
Take a look
Hey it works
You’ll catch the crook!
Guess and check
Guess and check
Don’t use hunt and peck
Grope and hope leaves things a wreck
Zero in with guess and check.
HOLMES: The answer is eight! Amazing. Come on, Watson.
Let’s get to the bank and check out safe-deposit box
number eight.
(To CLIENTS)
We’ll be back in a flash with the document.
(CLIENTS exit. HOLMES and WATSON walk across stage, and then back to where the BANKERS have entered.)
(This concludes the first one-third of the script.)
The Songs
Click on any song to listen to a snippet. Click the cart icon to purchase any track for $1.
Standards
Common Core and Other National Standards
Mathematics
Language Arts
- Common Core Reading Standards for Literature: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th
- Common Core Reading Standards: Foundational Skills:
- 2nd: Phonics and Word Recognition
- Common Core Speaking and Listening Standards: Comprehension and Collaboration - 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th
- Common Core Language Standards: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use -2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th
- Common Core Standard 10: Range, Quality & Complexity:
National Core Arts Standards
- Music - Anchor Standards 4-6
- Theater - Anchor Standards 3-6
- Dance - Anchor Standards 1-6
Vocabulary
peculiar
repossess
safe-deposit box
chocolate mousse
Aristotle
Rembrandt
cannibal
twelve-step
program
tart
obstacle
drat (slang)
shilling
take a shot
hunt and peck
zero in
"put the cart before the horse"
"the play’s the thing"
Rita Stolt (verified owner) –
We are a small private school (17 students grades 3K-grade 8) so most students had to play more than one character. My favorites were the boys who played the bankers of the Bank of London (London, Texas that is) and three other boys who dressed up to play the cannibal sisters. Hilarious! Of course everyone did a great job on every character.
The kids worked hard and had lots of fun putting their own spin on each of their characters. They also did most of the work on our sets and props. I appreciate your songs being so catchy. It makes them easy for the kids to learn. We've done several of your plays here and I'm sure they would be able to sing along on about any song I would start for them.
Thanks again for your fine work. We're already thinking about what we want to do next year.
Heather B. (verified owner) –
Mastering Math was a huge hit with parents, staff and students. I have used the song strategies when talking my own daughter through her homework. 🎶Guess…and check…🎶
The kids performed after a 4 day weekend and I was a little nervous about that but they came together. It was such a joy to see their character's personalities emerge at just the right moment. I cried at the end I was so proud (and also sad that it was over).
The option of a digital download was a life saver since, by the time I placed my order, I needed it yesterday. It was super easy to download the script and audio and it was pretty much instant.
I am already planning to do another one next year. I love Bad Wolf Press! Keep up the good work, y'all!
Mari (verified owner) –
Mastering Math goes through many problem solving skills for students. Students are engaged and have really learned the process of problem solving. A great and engaging play.