"Miss J's 4th grade class is selling 'smelly' pencils to raise funds for fieldtrips. Thursday they received a delivery of 4 cases and 2 boxes of pencils. Each case has 4 boxes. Each box has 100 packages of pencils. Each package contains 3 pencils.
How many pencils does the class now have available to sell?"
Scroll down to find the answer!
I used this word problem with my students yesterday. Kids HATE math word problems, except when it's about something that concerns them. As some of you know, I start a business with my students each year: 1) so they can learn that work brings benefits (fieldtrips in our case) and 2) so I can use their buisness to help improve their math.
Every student has a job, whether it be as a cashier, an advertisement executive, a security guard (shame, but we need them), a customer service representative, or an auditor who oversees the checks and balances. They are interviewed and hired for the position. Funny, they're almost protective of the job they've selected. If another student is in their "place", they tell them to move out or on over.
When the state tests roll around, my students are pretty prepared, at least in math! *smile* They are some of the top scorers in our district. This, in a school where 90% of the students are second language learners. When other teachers ask me how I did it (having students score so high on the state tests), I tell them in a questioning tone, "I taught them?" 
Getting back to the business...Wow, we have a lot of pencils to sell! The good thing is my class has sold enough pencils to pay back about half the cost I paid out on my credit card to buy and have these pencils shipped out to us. Once I'm paid back, everything else is pure profit!
We should have more than enough pencils to carry us through the next school year. These students will "loop" with me up to 5th grade next year. They should be professional pencil sellers by then!
Oh yeah, the answer to the problem is: 5400 pencils!!!!
And The Answer Is....
January 13th, 2007 at 01:49 am
January 13th, 2007 at 02:00 am 1168653658
January 13th, 2007 at 03:14 am 1168658089
January 14th, 2007 at 03:07 pm 1168787220
January 14th, 2007 at 04:24 pm 1168791870