Word Problem Wednesday: Grow Your Everyday Math Skills

Apr 4, 2018 | Pflugerville

Get your hands dirty in the garden while practicing everyday math skills with this word problem challenge.

 

Q: Why did the gardener plant light bulbs?
A: Because she wanted to grow a power plant!

 

And why did the gardener practice her math skills? Because she knew that math is useful in every situation, even in the garden! This week’s word problem challenge takes us outdoors to get our hands dirty while we improve our everyday math skills. Practice your subtraction, multiplication, and finding the area of a rectangle with Lily as she makes pretty labels for the plants in her garden. 

Challenge: Lily is making labels for the plants in her garden. Each label is made of a white 3" × 5" laminated against a colorful 5" × 8" card. What is the area of the front of each label that isn’t covered by the white card?

Solution: First, we need to find the area of the larger card. That’s 5 × 8 = 40 square inches. Next, we subtract the part that’s covered by the white card, which is 3 × 5 = 15 square inches. Then we subtract the area of the small card from the larger card, which gives us 40 - 15 = 25 square inches.

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