Who doesn’t love chocolate chip cookies? And the more chocolate chips the better, right? This week’s word problem challenge uses cookies to illustrate the math concept of average. Because let’s face it, any kind of cookie is a delicious kids’ math learning practice!

(Promotional poster for Mary Poppins Returns, Disney, Dec. 2018)

What do you like to buy when you go to the store? When you’re shopping on a budget you have to think carefully about what you’re going to put in your cart. Are you a cookies and milk person? Do you prefer ice-cream? Or are you more likely to want apples and peanut butter? In this week’s word problem challenge you can practice your elementary school math skills such as multiplication, addition, subtraction, and money math to help Eric figure out how much he has to spend on groceries if he buys the sweets he wants.

Question: Eric has $31.00 to spend on groceries. He has 4 boxes of cookies that cost $2.85 each and a half-gallon of milk that costs $3.50 in his cart already. How much money does Eric have left to spend on his other groceries?

Take your time figuring out the answer. When you're ready, look below to check your solution with ours!

Solution: The 4 boxes of cookies cost 4 × $2.85 = $11.40. The cookies plus the milk cost $11.40 + $3.50 = $14.90. Subtracting $14.90 from $31.00, we get $16.10.