Problem of the Week #16
Animal Store

Picture
You are given $100.00 to spend at the animal store.  You must buy 100 animals and you must spend the entire $100.00.  You must also buy at least one of each animal.  Sheep cost $15.00 each, chickens cost $1.00 each, and mice cost $0.25 each.

How many of each animal do you have to buy?

Show your work using numbers, pictures, a table, and/or words.

SOLUTION

You buy:
3 sheep
41 chickens
56 mice 

Problem of the Week #15
Figure it Out

Picture
There are 15 pennies grouped into 4 piles.  Each pile has a different number of pennies, but each pile contains at least 1 penny.

How many pennies can be in the largest pile?

What is the least number of pennies that can be in the largest pile?

Use pictures and words to explain your thinking.

SOLUTION

There can be 6, 7, 8, or 9
pennies in the largest pile. 

Problem of the Week #14
Meet Me in the Middle!

Picture
A man can walk 4 km in 1 hour and his wife can walk 5 km in 1 hour. What time will they meet, if they begin walking at 2:00 pm from opposite ends of a 12 km road, and have agreed to meet at the half-way point?  

Show your work using numbers, pictures, a table, and/or words.

Challenge: How long will the wife have to wait for her husband?

SOLUTION

The man and his wife
will meet at 3:30.  

The answer to the challenge is that the wife will have to wait 18 minutes for her husband to meet her. 

Problem of the Week #13
Pizza Party!

Picture
You have 7 mini pizzas to share equally with 3 friends.  How much will you and each friend get? Be sure to share the leftovers equally.

Problem Solving Strategy:  Draw a Picture!

SOLUTION

you need to divide the 7 pizzas among 4 people (3 friends plus yourself), so the answer is that each
person gets 1 and 3/4 pizzas. 

Problem of the Week #12
March Madness

Picture
The NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament is coming soon. In each of the four regions there are 16 basketball teams.  Each team plays until they lose one game.  There is only one winner.  How many total games are played in the Tournament?

Pierce’s own March Madness will take place on March 6th, 7th and 8th with games for grades K-3 as well as a March Math Madness competition for 4th-6th grades. 

SOLUTION

If there are 16 basketball teams in four regions and each team plays until they lose one game, then the answer is that there are 63 games in the tournament.  

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #11
FARMER BROWN

Picture
Farmer Brown raises only chickens and cows on his farm.  
Each morning he counts their legs. 
Today he finds that he has 90 legs in all. 
He has twice as many cows as chickens. 
How many chickens does he have?


Hint: Try drawing a simple sketch or using guess & check!
Show your work using numbers, pictures, a table, and/or words.  

SOLUTION

He has 9 chickens on his
farm. 

Problem of the Week #10
Fifteen Cards

Picture
I have fifteen cards numbered 1 – 15. (no duplicates).  I put down seven of them in the table in a row.







The numbers on the first two cards add to 15.
The numbers on the second and third cards add to 20.
The numbers on the third and fourth cards add to 23.
The numbers on the fourth and fifth cards add to 16.
Then numbers on the fifth and sixth cards add to 18.
The numbers on the sixth and seventh cards add to 21.

Write the numbers in the cards above.
Hint:  Try Guess & Check strategy.

SOLUTION

Coming soon.

Problem of the Week #9

Picture
A tangram is a set of 7 puzzle pieces be used to make different shapes. 

A tangram company is making pieces out of a new plastic, and they need to figure out the cost based on the amount of plastic needed to make a small triangle.  If a small triangle costs 25 cents to make, how much will it cost the company to make the whole tangram puzzle?

Hint: you can cut up the pieces (click on picture to enlarge) or borrow a tangram set (in Math Center).

SOLUTION

If the smallest triangle cost 25 cents, then the entire puzzle would cost $4.00

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #8

Picture
Ken gets allowance funds every day.  
On Monday, the first, he gets 1 cent, 
On Tuesday, the second, he gets 2 cents, 
On Wednesday, the third, he gets 3 cents, 
On Thursday, the fourth, he gets 4 cents and so on.  

On what day of the week will Ken have a total of 55 cents?

Hint:  Make a Table!  Show your work using numbers, pictures, a table, and/or words.

SOLUTION

The answer is that if Ken continued to earn one more cent each day for the month, he would have earned a total of 55 cents on Wednesday, the 10th. 

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #7
“Different Outfits”

Picture
You have blue pants, green pants, brown pants, and jeans and a blue shirt, red shirt, and orange shirt.  How many different outfits can you make?

Problem Solving Strategy:  Make an Organized List!

Show your work using numbers, pictures, a table, and/or words.

SOLUTION

The correct answer to "Different Outfits" is that you have a total of 12
different combinations that could be made from 4 pants and 3 shirts. 

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #6
UNICEF Collection

Pierce students collected change for UNICEF on Halloween. When the boxes were emptied by 1W students and the money was sorted, there were:
Answer either question. Be sure to show your work.
Question A: What is the total amount of money Pierce collected in bills and checks?

Question B: What is the total amount of money Pierce collected in bills, checks and coins?

When submitting your solution, remember to write both your first and last name on your solution as well as your class.

SOLUTION

The correct answer to "Unicef Collection" is as follows:  The total bills and checks for questions A is $441.24 and the total bills, checks, and
coins for question B is $1,268.87.  

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #5
How Many Digits?

Picture
The owner of the Number Line Hotel is renovating and wants to put new room numbers on all of the rooms. She is making a list of how many of each digit she needs to buy before going to the hardware store. The room numbers go from 0-99.

How many of each digit does she need to buy in order to label all 100 rooms?

Show your work using number, pictures, a table, and/ or words.

Hint: You need to find out how many 1’s she will need to buy, how many 2’s and so on.

SOLUTION

The correct answer was:
10-zeros
20-ones
20-twos
20-threes
20-fours
20-fives
20-sixes
20-sevens
20-eights
20-nines

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #4
The Value of a Picture

Picture
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.

It is also claimed that words are a "dime a dozen".

Assuming these propositions are true, what is the dollar value of a picture? 

Show your work using number, pictures, a table, and/or words. 

SOLUTION

The correct answer was that a picture is worth about $8.33.

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #3
Climbing Caterpillars

A caterpillar is trying to crawl up the tree. It takes 2 minutes for it to climb 1 foot, but it falls back 6 inches each time it climbs 1 foot. How long will it take thecaterpillar to crawl to the top of the 8-foot tree?

Show your work using pictures, numbers or symbols.

(Hint: Try to use a number line to solve this problem.)

SOLUTION

The correct answer was either 30 or 32 minutes.

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #2
Counting Shells 

Jack has a lot of shells. He has more than 40 but less than 60. When he counts them by twos he has one left over. When he counts them by fives he has none left over. The number of shells is more than half of 100.

How many shells does Jack have?

Show your work using numbers, pictures, a table, and/or words.

SOLUTION 

The correct answer was Jack had 55 shells. 

PROBLEM OF THE WEEK #1
A Tale of Cats

The lucky cats on Stratton Street had seven mice apiece to eat. The rest made do with only two; the total score being 24. How many cats ate mousie meat?

Hint:  The lucky cats each ate 7 mice, but the unlucky cats each ate exactly 2 mice.

Show your work using numbers, pictures, a table, and/or words.

SOLUTION

The correct answer was that 7 cats ate mousie meat (2 lucky cats ate 7 mice each and 5 unlucky cats ate 2 mice each, for a total of 24 mice).