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.

Solutions

Solutions for each challenge will be shown on an updated blog entry of the monthly challenge.  For example, if you would like to see the solutions for the September challenges then visit the September challenge entry.

Remember it is the process that is important.  Even if you don't get to the end solution some learning will have taken place and you will be in a better position to tackle other challenges.

Enjoy!