Would you believe it if we told you that a dog could tutor for math? It’s true! Well...kind of. We’re featuring a few shelter dogs in this week’s word problem to encourage kids math learning. After all, we know that the best way to learn math is to apply it in real world situations.

This word problem challenges students to practice their elementary school math skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It may look “ruff”, but trust us, this question is a walk in the park! Go ahead and check out the challenge below, then take your time working it out. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to compare your solution to ours!

Question: Grace, Ruby, and James volunteer to walk shelter dogs. Grace walks half as many dogs as Ruby, who walks 5 more dogs than James. James walks 9 dogs. How many dogs did Grace walk?

Do you have World Cup fever? We do! Then again, what’s not to love about soccer (fútbol) when the World Cup incorporates so much of our favorite thing: MATH! This post was originally written in 2018, during the FIFA men's world cup, but now it's the turn of women's teams around the world and we are just as excited! 

When the weather gets nice and school gets out it means it's time to take the math learning outdoors! Sometimes practical application can make the best kids math program, which is why our weekly word problems have a basis in real world math problems such as gardening!

This word problem challenge gives students an opportunity to practice their elementary school math skills such as fractions, conversions, multiplication and division. Are you ready to “grow” your skills? Take a look and give it a try. When you're ready, read further below to check your solution against ours!

Question: Harrison has a full 3–gallon watering can. He uses 5/8 of the water on the gardenias in his garden. How much water did the gardenias get?

Solution: First we converted the amount of water from gallons into pints because a pint is 1/8 of a gallon. Harrison had 24 pints of water. Then we found 5/8 of 24 and determined Harrison used 15 pints of water.



(Photo above by Bill Ward on Flickr.)