October+Challenges

October 25th

The Perfect Pet

Your class voted to buy a pet for the classroom. The class made a chart of each animal and the good and bad characteristics of each one. Your job is to figure out from the data what the best pet to get would be. You want to get the least expensive pet with the most good qualities. Using the attached chart, what pet should the class buy? Give REASONS for your answer. What is the second best choice?



October 17th Should Jesse Guess?

Seth has 21 cents in his pocket. Seth told Jesse that he would give Jesse the 21 cents if he could correctly guess what coins they were. He would give Jesse 3 guesses. If Jesse did not guess correctly, Jesse would have to give Seth 21 cents. Should Jesse guess? Explain your math thinking!

October 11th Broken Bones Oops! You fell off your bike and broke one of the finger bones in your left hand. Looking at the xray, your realized you have a LOT of bones in your hands! When you asked the doctor how many UNbroken bones you had in your hands, she gave you a puzzle to solve instead. At least it got your mind off the pain of your broken finger bone!

The doctor's puzzle: You have 2 bones in each thumb. You have 3 bones in all the other fingers. You have 2 more palm bones on each hand than finger bones on each finger. You have 3 more wrist bones on each hand than palm bones on each hand.

Can you figure it out? How many UNbroken bones do you have in your hands? Hint - draw a picture. It might help.

October 3 Raking Leaves <span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">You and two friends have been offering your services as leaf rakers around the neighborhood. You charge a dime a minute for your work. After one job, the homeowner asks you how much each of you is owed for your time. You say that you all started at nine o'clock. You worked until 9:30. One friend worked ten minutes longer than that. The second friend worked until ten o'clock - she wanted to get the job DONE! How much does the homeowner owe each of you? Remember, you only get credit if I see your work and can figure out how you got your answer. Just writing an amount down and handing it in isn't going to cut it!