December Challenge - Year 1 & 2

Melody bought 4 boxes of Christmas tree baubles.  Each box held 6 baubles. Unfortunately, there was one broken bauble in each box.  How many baubles could Melody hang on her Christmas tree?

Hint:  Draw a picture of the boxes of baubles.

Solutions are to be completed by Friday 16th December.  Please post them into the Maths Challenge Box in the picture book library.

December Challenge - Year 3 & 4

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree. (1 present)

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 2 turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. (3 presents)

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.  (6 presents)

So by day 3, I have been given 1 + 3 + 6 = 10 presents.

How many presents will I have by the end of the 12^th day of Christmas?

Hint – To keep organized, calculate how many presents you receive on each of the 12 days, and then find the total.

Solutions are to be completed by Friday 16th December.  Please post them into the Maths Challenge Box in the picture book library.

December Challenge - Years 5 & 6

Who spent the most?

The following characters have just been Christmas shopping.  Who has spent the most money?

Elf – I bought 4 presents.  The cheapest was £15.50 then they increased by £4.50 each up to the most expensive.

Reindeer – I bought gifts for the 8 other reindeer.  The shop was offering “Buy 3 – Get 1 free.”  The usual price per item was £12.50.

Angel – My most expensive gift cost the same as the elf’s cheapest gift.  The other 6 got progressively cheaper by £1.10.

Snowman – I spent an average of £8.10 per present and I bought gifts for my wife, 5 nieces and 4 nephews.  

Solutions are to be completed by Friday 16th December.  Please post them into the Maths Challenge Box in the picture book library.

November Challenge - Years 1 & 2

Jasper’s Beanstalk

Jasper’s bean grew 1 cm on a Friday.  After that, the beanstalk grew 2 cm taller each day.  When did the beanstalk reach 13 cm tall?

 

Possible strategy:

Use blocks to build the beanstalk.  You could even change 2 cm to 2 blocks to make the question more tangible for your child.  Build the height for each day and label it with the days of the week.

Solution: Thursday

November Challenge - Years 3 & 4

Cupcake Conundrum

Dinah goes into the cake shop every week and would like to try a different cupcake on each visit.  By looking at the menu below, can you help her find out how many different combinations she can have?

Cake size	Small	Medium	Large
Icing flavour	Chocolate	Vanilla	Lemon
Topping	Cherries	Sprinkles	Sweets

She must choose the size, icing flavour and topping for each of her choices.  Think about how you could organize your solution so you don’t miss any combinations.

Solution:  There are 27 different combinations.

November Challenge - Years 5 & 6

A square triangle?

It may seem very peculiar to you but I’ve drawn a triangle where all the angles are square.  No, I don’t mean right angles (90^o) – that’s impossible!

What I do mean is that each angle, measured in degrees, is a square number.

Can you tell me how many degrees each angle has?

Reminders:

The total of all three angles in a triangle is 180^o.

Can you remember what square numbers are?  Try 1x1, 2x2, etc.

Solution: 100^o + 64^o + 16^o

October Challenge - Years 1 & 2

The Queen of Hearts made 20 tarts.  

She arranged the tarts on some plates.  Some of the plates had five tarts on and some of the plates had two tarts on.  

How many plates did she use?

Hint:  Find twenty objects to represent the tarts (or even make some playdoh tarts) and have a small pile of plates.  Have your child try different combinations until he/she is able to find the solution.  

For older children, you might be able to talk about odd and even numbers.

Solution:
7 plates are needed - 5 plates with 2 tarts and 2 plates with 5 tarts.