The Story of the King of Peace

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The Pink Tower

This series of cubes develops visual discrimination of size in 3 dimensions. Exploration with this material prepares

the child for mathematical concepts in the decimal system, geometry and volume. The Pink Tower consists of ten wooden cubes painted pink, increasing increments from 1 cm3 to 1000 cm3.

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Trinomial Cube

With the Trinomial Cube children can focus on patterning and ordering, and making connections as to the relationships between the different cubes and prisms regarding dimension, color and shape.

What is the relationship between The Pink Tower and Trinomial Cube? This story will tell you.

The Story of the King of Peace

Narrated by Axel Winkler

A long time ago, in a very large country, there were four Kings. Each of these Kings lived separately in their own Kingdom. A very wide, impressive river ran through the country and separated the kingdoms. One kingdom was located on the south side of the river, and the other three on the north side. The three Kings living on the north side of the river all had their own castles. One was called the Red King, another was called the Blue King, and the last was the Yellow King. Each had an entourage of two bodyguards dressed in black and six attendants.

On the south side of the river, in a beautiful Pink Tower, lived the King of Peace. Maybe you have heard of this King before?

One day, something special took place. The King of Peace appointed the smallest attendant as his Peace Ambassador and gave him his first assignment. He was told to make a courtesy visit to the three kingdoms on the north side of the river. During his visit, the Peace Ambassador noticed that each of the Kings and their entourages were rather unhappy. The Red King complained that his castle was too hot. The Blue King complained that his castle was too cold, and the Yellow King grumbled that his castle was too small. When the Peace Ambassador returned to the Pink Tower, he informed the King of Peace about his visit and the state of affairs of the three kingdoms he visited.

The King of Peace listened attentively to the Peace Ambassador. After a short period of silence, he decided to try and resolve the situation for the three Kings. He came up with a plan. If each of the three Kings would accept to live with their entourages, each on a separate floor, in the same castle, there would be happiness in each and every kingdom. The following day, the King of Peace sent his Peace Ambassador back across the river to present his plan to the three Kings.

As the Peace Ambassador approached, the Red King commanded his attendants and bodyguards to be in position to welcome the Peace Ambassador. They stately aligned themselves.

When they all sat together, the Peace Ambassador presented the King’s plan – for them all to come and live in a brand new, three story castle. The Red King, pretending that he would be annoyed by the Blue King and the Yellow King, immediately answered: “No!” and said: “I’d rather stay in a castle that is too hot!”.

The Peace Ambassador then went to the Blue King to present the King of Peace’s proposal. When the Blue King saw the Peace Ambassador coming, he too called his attendants and bodyguards together to receive him properly. The Blue King also said “No” to the proposal and stated that he would rather stay in a castle that was too cold than share a castle with his two royal neighbors.

Lastly, the Peace Ambassador went to visit the Yellow King. The Yellow King too gathered his attendants and bodyguards to give the Peace Ambassador a warm welcome.

On behalf of his King, the Peace Ambassador made the same proposal to the Yellow King. Unfortunately, he received the same answer – a firm “No!”.

A bit discouraged and disappointed, the Peace Ambassador went back to the King of Peace to inform him of the unanimous refusal he received from the three Kings.

The King of Peace gave the situation more thought and decided to set up a meeting with his advisors in the tall Pink Tower. After many hours of thoughtful consideration, they arrived at a very clever solution: each kingdom would live independently on a separate floor of the brand new castle. That was nothing new. But the King of Peace added a clever second part: two special observers from each kingdom would be permanently assigned to reside on floors other than their own. This solution would provide enough security for all and it would prevent one King being favored over another.

The King sent back the Peace Ambassador to the three kingdoms to present this creative solution. The Red King received the Peace Ambassador and accepted the new proposal.

Being protected by two of his bodyguards and four of his attendants, the Red King left his royal suite. Two of his attendants were left behind to become special observers. Since the Red King had first choice, he chose to reside on the first floor of the new castle, in the farthest corner. The agreement was that the two special observers were to reside close to, but not next to the King. Therefore the special observers from the Blue and Yellow kingdoms joined his suite as well.

When the Red King and his people were comfortable in their new residence, the Peace Ambassador went to visit the Blue King in his cold castle. He invited him to move into his new suite on the second floor of the new castle. It was explained that he was to reside not exactly over the Red King’s suite, but in the center of the floor. The Peace Ambassador explained the agreement to him and the Blue King accepted. So two special observers – one from the Yellow kingdom and one from the Red kingdom joined them on the second floor.

Then the Peace Ambassador went to the Yellow King and asked him the same question: “Would you accept the agreement? You will move onto the third floor of the new castle, where your suite will be neither directly over that of the Blue King nor the one of the Red King. Like with the other kingdoms, two special observers will be stationed on your floor, but they will keep their distance.” The Yellow King accepted the agreement as well.

From then on, the Red King, the Blue King, and the Yellow King lived separately on different floors of the new castle. They were each protected by their own bodyguards and attendants and, per the agreement, had two special observers – one from each of the other kingdoms. The King of Peace was successful. His plan brought peace, happiness and harmony forever. Thereafter, the Peace Ambassador returned to his own kingdom and positioned himself at the very top of the Pink Tower. From here he would be an observer until he was assigned his next mission by the King of Peace. We thank him for his patient and triumphant mediation between the Red King, the Blue King and the Yellow King.

By such a story we can foster a child’s imagination and creativity and encourage it to make new discoveries.

( a + b + c )³=

a³ + 3 a²b + 3 a²c + b³ + 3 b²a + 3 b²c + c³ + 3 c²a + 3 c²b + 6 abc