Word Problems and Solutions -- Black Friday/Cyber Monday

After surviving another wonderful Thanksgiving in NYC, I experienced once again the crazy pace of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Terrific Tuesday (I made that last one up). In negotiating extensively with several companies over the weekend, I once again was faced with hundreds of mathematical calculations using every operation (+-x/). Although calculations were critical, I noticed that many of the companies with whom I dealt made significant mistakes when using a calculator (usually a place value error). Also, being specific was critical.

It seemed to me that your children would benefit from understanding word problems in the context of "being specific" on what they are trying to solve, and understanding which operation to use. I designed the lesson to challenge the 1-2nd graders with addition and subtraction word problems and the 3-6th graders with all four operations. I also introduced algebraic concepts and the Singapore math use of bars to solve fractional questions.

I attach here the problems and solutions. Your children should try as many as they can and if they get stuck, look at the solution page and try to work backwards to figure out the strategy.

We will be introducing more logic based questions next week using a national math contest called Noetic Learning. This will be fun for the whole family as the questions are quite challenging.

Students should underline key words or phrases as they are reading the question. As they read, start writing down the calculations as it helps organize strategies, put a box around the missing information so they are focused on the target, re-read the question before the end to make sure they are answering the relevant question. Finally, they should not answer with a number only. What does that number represent?