02 Jul 2005 - 23:11

singapore word problems, sampler 3

Note: solutions to the problems from SingaporeWordProblemSampler2 have been posted here.

So here's a whole new set of problems!

Primary 3: Margo has 3 times as many pears as apples. If she has 84 pears and apples altogether, how many pears does she have?

Primary 4: A cake was cut into 12 equal pieces. Jim ate two pieces and Tom ate four pieces. What fraction of the cake was left?

Primary 5: A bag of potatoes weighs 7/8 kg.. A bag of yams weighs 4/5 as much as the bag of potatoes. Find the total weight of the bag of potatoes and the bag of yams.

Primary 6: Eric has 75% as much money as Joshua. Carl has 60% as much money as Eric and Joshua have together. If Eric has 36 dollars less than Carl, how much money does Joshua have?

I don't know about you all, but I think I perceive these Singapore math problems becoming markedly harder at level 5.

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I'm impressed with the type of work at Primary 3. This surely is ahead of our Grade 3. Some of my 5th graders would struggle.

I'm thinking that this problem would be a good type to use for those really bright 5th graders who I train every year for Math Olympics. They don't have any trouble with our Saxon 6/5 beginning algebra and would love this. I'm making notes.

-- CarolynMorgan - 04 Jul 2005

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I just ran these past Ben (except for the Primary 6 problem). He had no trouble, except that he didn't know how to take 4/5 OF 7/8, and we reminded him that 'of' usually means multiply.

Phew.

-- CarolynJohnston - 04 Jul 2005

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Well, thank goodness you didn't tell us Ben just "whizzed" through all of them, including the Primary 6 problem!!! I'm just getting back to Pr. 6 and am going to give it one more stab!

-- CarolynMorgan - 05 Jul 2005

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I'm posting the solutions to these problems here.

-- CarolynJohnston - 05 Jul 2005

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Oh, I'm starting to remember. I get it!! Thanks. Where can I get more like Primary 6, Sample 3, to use for practice? Maybe I'll go to a "used book" store and browse around.

-- CarolynMorgan - 05 Jul 2005

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There were problems in Challenging Word Problems Grade 3 that I had trouble doing.

One of them neither Ed nor my friend Kris could do in the time we spent on it.

I'll have to find it and post it.

-- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005

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I'm doing MATH OLYMPIADS problems now--boy, are they hard.

What I like about the CHALLENGING WORD PROBLEMS books is that they group the problems, so you get lots of practice on CHALLENGING WORD PROBLEMS.

With Math Olympiads you skip from one hard problem to a completely different hard problem.

I'm hoping to get in touch with Daniel WIllingham in the not too distant future to de-brief him on the subject of teaching problem-solving, but for the time being I'm assuming that a coherent curriculum is always best.

The CHALLENGING WORD PROBLEMS books are much cheaper than the Math Olympiads books.

-- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005