WordProblems

On the weeks when we have a major test (like last week), I'll most likely put off the Word Problem Test. Too many tests in one week, hurts the brain!

June 6, 2007

Barney is doing his Barney Dance.
He dances from 8:45 until 12:05.

How much time does he dance before Godzilla accidently steps on him (at 12:05)?

June 5, 2007

King Kong climbed up the Empire State Building. He began climbing at 3:10 p.m.
He reached the top at exactly 5:00 p.m. How much time did this climb take?

May 30, 2007

Tommy has a giant cube that he plays with. It is 9 yards long, 9 yards wide, and 9 yards high.
What is the volume of that giant cube?

What would the volume be in feet?

May 29, 2007

We were told by Mr. Will and Mrs. McTague to water the plants at the habitat.
We should water them, two liters, per plant.

How many mL of water would go on a plant?

If we did two liters per plant, how many liters would there be all together?
(There are 12 plants and two trees).

May 24, 2007

Spiderman climbed up a building that was 735 meters tall.
How many centimeters is it?
How many millimeters is it?

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Mickey Mouse and Goofey have a club house that is 25 meters by 13 meters.

What is the area of the club house?

What is the perimeter of the club house?

If the length is 25 meters, how many centimeters is that?

How many millimeters is that?

May 15, 2007

Mr. Cole's computer room at his house is
25 feet by 17 feet.
What is the area and what is the perimeter?

Remember area is always expressed in square units.

May 14, 2007

Garfield went on a five mile run in search of lasagna. He loves lasagna.
A mile is 5280 feet.
How many feet did he run to get his delicious lasagna?

May 11, 2007

Those scary Teletubies went for a walk. They walked 72 yards.
How many feet did they walk?
Remember that there are three feet to a yard.

May 9, 2007

Bart Simpson skateboarded 3 and 1/5 miles on Monday,
2 and 3/5 miles on Tuesday,
and
5 and 1/5 miles on Wednesday.

How many miles did he skateboard in all?
Make sure you turn improper fractions into mixed numbers.

May 3, 2007

The Peanuts Gang have a party to celebrate Charlie Brown's birthday.
Each member has their own pizza.

Linus eats 27/36 of the pizza.

Lucy eats 15/30 of the pizza.

Peppermint Patty eats 7/28 of the pizza.

Snoopy eats 8/14 of the pizza.

Which of the above gang ate exactly one half of the pizza?

Which one ate a little over one half of the pizza?

Which one ate 25% of the pizza?

Which one ate 75% of the pizza?

(Hint: first reduce the fractions above, and then answer the questions).

May 2, 2007

A few people have tried to climb the great mountain of Mount Friendship.

Clyde climbed 3/4 of the way up.

Barney climbed 3/6 of the way up.

Jo Ann climbed 1/4 of the way up.

May Sue climbed 5/12 of the way up.

Who climbed half way?

Who climbed almost half way?

Who climbed about 25% of the mountain?

Who climbed about 75% of the mountain?

Who climbed the farthest?

Who climbed the least farthest?

May 1, 2007

Is it more likely that 2 will be spun or 1, 3, or 4 will be spun?

Which number is most likely to be spun?

Which number is impossible to be spun?

What is the probability that an odd number will be spun?

What is the probability that a number smaller than ten will be spun?

What is the probability that a number that's a multiple of five will be spun?

April 30, 2007

What is the probabiliy of the spinner landing on an even number?

What is the probability of the spinner landing on an odd number?

Which is more likely?

What is the probability of the spinner landing on a multiple of 3?

April 25, 2007

George, who has a major sweet tooth, ate 29/3 candy bars.

How many candy bars did he have (in mixed number format)?

Brenda ate 3/15 of a candy bar.
Bertha ate 7/15 of a candy bar.

How much did they eat in all (in lowest terms)?

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Anna, Selenea, and Megan went to Cole's Pizza Parlor and ordered one large pizza.

Anna ate 3/21 of it.
Selenea ate 4/21 of it.
Megan ate 5/21 of it.

How much did they eat all together?
I want this answer in.....lowest terms.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Based on the following picture, write down six fractions that are equivalent.

Also add the following fractions:

3/12 and 5/12 and 1/12

What is the answer in lowest terms?

April 20, 2007

Look at each of the following fractions.
Write a number sentence showing greater/less than
like:

3/4 > 1/4 based in the picture.

Picture One:

Picture #2:

Picture #3

April 19, 2007

Just match up the following fractions:

April 18, 2007

Using the above picture, put in the greater than >, or less than < , or equal sign for each of the following:

1/4_________ 1/9

1/3___________1/2

1/7_____________1/8

1/3____________1/2

1/7__________1/3

April 16, 2007
Decimals in Hundred Acre Woods:

Winnie the Pooh found three dollars and 3/4 on the ground.
He brought it to Christopher Robin. How much was it?

_____________________

Eeyore has three and two tenths pizza.
Rabbit has three and forty-two hundredths pizza.
Tigger has three and nineteen hundredths pizza.

Write these three numbers from smallest to largest.

___________ ___________ _____________

Finally, if Little Piglet had three and five tenths pizza, and
Christopher Robin told him to round it to the nearest whole number,
what would Piglet round to?

______________________

April 12, 2007

Popeye, in order to get his spinach, had to answer the following questions.
Can you help him?

a. Write down seventeen and nine tenths.

b. Write down eight and four hundredths.

c. Write down forty two and seventeen hundredths.

d. If I have nine tens, three ones, two tenths and four hundredths, what number am I?

April 11, 2007

April 10, 2007

March 29, 2007

Gumby (and his good friend Pokey) walked 24.09 miles last Saturday.
This many miles is between ________ miles and _________ miles.
Which is it closer to, and how do you know this?

March 28, 2007

Bozo the Clown ate 8.74 pizzas for dinner last night.

Fill in the sentence:
He ate more than _____ whole pizzas. He ate less than _______ whole pizzas.

If Fred the Clown ate 8.9 pizzas, who ate more, Fred or Bozo?

Explain how you know this:

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________
March 27, 2007

Tweety bird has a large 37.9 ounce cup, filled to the brim, of bird soda.
Tweety has drank 3.86 ounces so far.
How much more does she/he have to drink?

(Is tweety bird a boy or a girl?)

March 26, 2007

Chuckie was given 2.43 of a candy bar on Monday,
5.9 on Tuesday,
3.56 on Wednesday,
and 6.33 on Thursday.

About how many candy bars was he given in all?

March 19, 2007

Jimmy Neutron really likes decimals. He added the following decimals up:
.34 and .89 and .5 and .03 and 5.6
What was the sum of all these decimals?

March 15, 2007

Eric found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
He can only get the gold if he puts the following
decimals in order from small to large.
You can help him.
Do it now.

.42
.9
.89
.14
1.3
.22
.5
.90

March 12, 2007

Sponge Bob is getting a new bed room. It is 17 feet long and 9 feet wide.
What is the area? What is the perimeter?

March 2, 2007

What is the "Great Remainder Conundrum" that Mr. Cole
talked about yesterday?

If you are given a problem like this:

There are 98 kids in the fourth grade. They are going on a field trip.
30 kids can fit on each bus. How many buses do you need?

98 divided by 30 equals 3 remainder 8.

How many buses do you need?

4 because the 8 remaining kids also need a bus.

That's the conundrum. Often in division, when you are doing a word problem, you
have to consider the left over (or remainder) in answering the question. If you had said 3 buses,
you would have had 8 very unhappy kids with no where to go.

Always remember the "Great Remainder Conundrum"!

March 1, 2007

Find the average number of siblings based on the line plot below.

February 27, 2007

March 1 is going to be the Cat in the Hat's fiftieth birthday.
He is inviting 236 people from each of the 7 continents.
If an equal number of people come from each continent,
how many will come from each continent?
Will there any any leftovers?

February 26, 2007

Mickey is studying to be a Number Wizard.
He needs help with knowing the "Secret of 3"
and the "Secret of 2".
Explain, in division, what these two secrets are.

February 22, 2007

Linus is in second grade.
He is pretty good with spelling.
These are his grades so far in third semester: 88, 93, and 89.
What is his average?

February 21, 2007

Bulwinkle and Rocky the Squirrel have been on 786 episodes.
If the episodes are equally divided in six years, how many
episodes were made each year?

February 20, 2007

Jimmy Jones, a second grader, is a mean, lean reading machine.
In 2006, from Septembr to December, he read 236 books.
How many books did he read each month, if there were an equal amount?
Were there any left over? How many?

February 13, 2007

On February 13, 78 snowmen were built by 6 kids. If each kid built the same amount of snowmen, and Mr. Cole built any that were left over, how many did each kid build? How many did Mr. Cole build? (Were there any left over?)

February 12, 2007

Jiminy Cricket gave out 26 Valentine's Day cards.
He gave an equal number to each of three classes. Then he had a few left over.
How many did he give to each class?
How many did he have left over?

February 5, 2007

Families come in all shapes and sizes. Even numbers have families.

What are the familes of 7 and 8?

What are the families of 2 and 7?

What are the families of 9 and 3?

What are the families of 4 and 5?

February 1, 2007

January 31, 2007

A few geometric question:

Explain how a line segment and a ray are the same and how they are different?

How many faces does a rectangular prism have?

What is the difference between a rectangular prism and a triangular prism?

January 30, 2007

January 29, 2007
Which of the following angles is acute? Which is obtuse? Which is right?

January 26, 2007

Draw the next set of triangles and the next square in the following pattern.
Do you get this pattern?

January 25, 2007

Now, back to functions and the wonders of algebra:

January 24, 2007

Pig Pen now needs help with his geometry homework. The Peanuts gang is really
struggling with geometry. We have to help him. His teacher asked him to draw three shapes that aren't
polygons and three shapes that are polygons. But he has to tell what kind of polygon each of the polygons are.
Can you show me what the teacher wants him to do?

January 23, 2007

Charlie Brown has a homework assignment. He is all upset because he doesn't know the answers. Help him.
He is supposed to draw three angles made up of rays.
One has to be ABC and it is an acute angle.
One is DEF and it is a obtuse angle.
Finally, the third is GHI and it is a right angle.

Do his assignment for him. Hopefully he will learn from your doing. Poor Charlie Brown.

January 19, 2007

James Bond has given you a code. The code is a hexagon. He asks you to put an angle named ABC on one part of this hexagon. (in other words, it will be two sides of the hexagon). What type of angle is this angle? (obtuse, acute, or right). If you draw the picture correctly and answer the question correctly, you will allowed to enter the secret spy chamber. Good luck. British Intelligence depends on you.

January 10, 2007

What is the algebraic rule of this function?
Fill in the missing numbers.

January 9, 2007

January 8, 2007

January 5, 2007

Yoda must find the secret pattern of the numbers in order to get into the Jedi Conference Hall.
The numbers are:

8, 12, 16, 15, 19, 23, 22, 26, 30, 29, 33, 37, 36....

He must put in the next four numbers. What are those numbers?
The fate of the entire galaxy rests on this answer!

January 4, 2007

Everyone told me this pattern was oh so easy. Remember, you can go to Links3 and do some of the pattern activities.
If you make a really creative pattern with Patterns Activity #4, print it out and bring it in.
We can see if we can figure it out.

January 3, 2007
Draw what would come next in the following pattern so that we know you understand the pattern.

January 2, 2007

What is the pattern?

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, _____, _______,

December 22, 2006

Rudolf is having a very busy winter holiday. He has 9 parties to go to each day. He is a party animal. If vacation begins on December 23 and ends on January 1, how many parties will he have gone to?

December 20, 2006

It is really snowing hard out west in Colorado.
If it keeps snowing 9 inches an hour for three complete days,
how many inches will it have snowed altogether?

(Remember: one day is 24 hours. How many hours would three days be?)

December 19, 2006

Georgie loves to sled. He sleds 7,823 times each winter.
He has done this every year since he was three.
He is now ten. How many times has he gone sledding?

December 18, 2006

It is all a balancing act. Both sides of the equal sign need to be balanced.
With multiplication, both sides need to have the same numbers.
Fill in the blanks with the correct numbers.

34 x _____ = ______ x 34

23 x (12 x 18) = (23 x 12) x _______

407 x 3 = ______ x 407

29 x (106 x 9) = (29 x 106) x ______

December 15, 2006

King Kong will only come down from the Empire State Building if someone will show him
a Venn Diagram of the first 9 multiples of 3 and the first 9 multiples of 4, and those multiples they share in common.
Can you do that? Get King Kong down off that building.

December 14, 2006

Good Old Papa Smurf lives in Smurf City. Smurf City has 3,922 homes. Each home has 7 Smurfs in it. How many Smurfs live in Smurf City?

An additional question: Write down the first 6 multiples of 4.

December 13, 2006

Popeye loves his spinach. It is his favorite meal. He has it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. If he has 98 meals of spinach a month, how many meals of spinach does he have in one year?

December 12, 2006

Mr. Magoo is very near-sighted. He walks into 79 doors each week. If there are 52 weeks in a year, how many doors would we walk into in one year? (First give me the estimated answer, and then give me the exact answer. I want both.)

December 11, 2006

Sleepy Melvin, the laziest cat in the world, sleeps 19 hours a day. About how many hours would he sleep in December (31 days)? "About" is the key word in this problem. It is an estimation problem.

December 8, 2006

Clyde, Mary, and Igor love throwing snowballs. Last January they threw 93 snowballs each day. If there are 31 days in January, how many snowballs did they throw in all?

December 7, 2006

Goofy is on a road trip across the country. He travels 73 miles a day in his old fashioned car.
How far will he have traveled in 14 days?
This is a two digit times a two digit. Be careful.

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December 6, 2006

The Cat in the Hat has build a warehouse for all his hats. The warehouse is 137 feet long and 90 feet wide.
What is the area and the perimeter of this warehouse?
(Remember you get perimeter by adding the four sides.
You find the area by multiplying length times width.)

December 5, 2006

          George the Misguided Reindeer drove his sleigh in the wrong direction.
          If he drove 234 miles a day in the wrong direction,
          how many miles would he drive in 20 days?

December 1, 2006

Donald Duck went to the roller skate rink. He skated around the rink 72 times. The perimeter of the rink is 70 feet long. How many feet did he skate?

November 30, 2006

Garfield loves to eat. He eats 345 sandwiches each day. How many would he eat in seven days (a week)?

November 29, 2006

If Mr. Cole has had a cup of coffee each day in November, and each cup of coffee costs 80 cents, how much money has Mr. Cole spent on coffee during the month of November? (Hint: How many days are there in November?)

November 28, 2006

Baby dragons go to dragon schools that teach 96 baby dragons at a time.
There are 300 dragon schools in the land of Narnia.
How many baby dragons are in school in Narnia?

November 27, 2006

Seven boxes of Tickle Me Elmo toys were shipped to the West Friendship Warehouse in Ellicott City, Maryland.
Each box had 635 Tickle Me Elmos. How many Elmo toys were shipped to the warehouse in all?

November 20, 2006

Marvin is going to go fishing over Thanksgiving break. He is great at fishing! If he catches 26 fish on each day of vacation (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) how many fish will he catch in all?

November 17, 2006

Mr. Cole can get a deal on PS3. He can get each game system for just $300. He gives one
to each student in his math class. (What a wonderful person he is). There are 16 kids in his
math class. How much does Mr. Cole pay?

November 16, 2006

Gobble Elementary is giving away turkeys to needy people. Each class is giving away 40 turkeys.
There are 33 classes in this school. How many turkeys are being given away?

November 15, 2006

Mr. Cole's math class got together to pool their tickets. Every student gave 300 tickets to Cameron. There are 16 kids in Mr. Cole's math class. How many tickets were pooled in all?

November 14, 2006

Barney has decided to give up surfing and have a nice swimming pool instead. The purple pool will be five yards wide and 90 yards long. What is the area and the perimeter of this purple pool?
Remember that the area is length times width.
Remember that perimeter is the adding of the four sides.
Finally, remember that zero trick we did that makes some multiplication soooo very easy.

November 13, 2006

Three buses took the children to the Smithsonian on Thursday. Each bus held 23 children and eight adults.
How many people in all went on this trip?

November 9, 2006

At the zoo there were 3 tigers in every cage. There were 9 cages. How many tigers were there in all?

Show three ways you can find the answer.
What is th

November 8, 2006

Georgie Porgie is a wonderful cook. He made 6 bags of cookies for his class. (This was before the healthy days of the present.)
In each bag he put 4 cookies. How many did he make in all? What are two ways arriving at this answer?

November 3, 2006

November 1 Word Problem:

This is a short answer response. It could be called a BCR for math.
Explain how the number of kids changed from 2000 until 2003 at Mr. Cole's house.
Use specific numbers in your answer.
Use the words: "increase" and "decrease" in your answer.

October 31- Boo!

Look at the above Hershey Park Graph.

During which two consecutive months did the greatest increase in visitors take place?

During which two consecutive months did the greatest decrease in visitors take place?

About how much was the increase?

About how much was the decrease?

Using the Snoopy graph above:
During which two months was there the greatest increase in sales of puppies?
During which two months was there a greatest decrease in sales of puppies?
What was the increase?
What was the decrease?
(The increase and decrease may not be exact. You are estimating to some extent.)
By the way, this was the type of problem that gave you the most trouble on the test.

October 27

Look at the above Flinestone Graph.
Why is a bar graph the proper choice for this data (rather than a line graph)?
What is the mode of this data?
What is the range of this data?
What is the median?
Who got the most loot?

October 25 Redux

On the Test Pilot practice test, there was one small mistake (despite the numerous double checks.) Using the line plot above, what is the mode? The mode in a line plot is always the number with the most xs. So the number with the most xs is of course 4. 4 is the mode. Another question I could ask using this line plot is how many people voted or participated in this survey? To find this answer, just count up the xs. So what is the answer?

October 23, 2006

Use the following bar graph to answer the following questions:

Why are we using a line graph for the information above?
What is the mean?
What is the mode?
What is the median?
What is the range?
What day did Franky do really poorly on?

October 18, 2006

You have to do a lot of estimating with the data above. You are sort of guessing what the various dots are worth. But it should
be an educated guess. For example, what is the first dot worth? I would say about 450 because it is between 400 and 500.

Okay, here are the questions:

What is the mode of this data?

What is the range of this data?

What is the median of this data?

What is the mean of this data?

What year was the best for Fergie, as far as fly eating is concerned?

What year was best for Fergie as far as losing weight is concerned?