Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Math Word Problems

I have really liked the word problems that our math curriculum includes.

This week we had the problem, "Gina has two dollars. That is three dollars less than Paula has. How many dollars does Paula have?"

K (age 6) figured it out instantly.

So I put a little twist on our "I am thinking of a number" game and asked, "I am thinking of a number. It is 5 more than the number 3."

I was surprised she didn't get it right away, but instead she began to draw a number line. (as shown below) She started at 3, which made sense for the problem and then got her answer, 8."


I was impressed with her problem solving strategy. And more impressed that she formed it on her own. Way to go K!