Today for Math Mania we tried our skills at Problem Solving! We have not taken up this question as a class, but we will do that on Monday. In the meantime, in case you are wondering how to help your child here are a few possible solutions to this question:
Information we know from the question:
- 24 students were surveyed
- Only SOME results are shown in the pictograph already
- The number of students who chose "cheese" as their favourite snack are missing
- The key tells us that each happy face represents 2 students, so we know that 1 student will be represented by half of a happy face
What we can figure out:
- 8 students like apples (2+2+2+2 = 8)
- 5 students like carrots (2+2+1 = 5)
- 4 students like crackers (2+2 = 4)
- 17 students have been surveyed so far (8+5+4 = 17)
- If 24 students were surveyed in total, the results of 7 students have not been shown in the pictograph (24 - 17 = 7)
- The 7 missing students like cheese. They can be represented by 3 1/2 happy faces.
There are many other ways students solved this problem in class. Here are some statements students told me when I asked how they solved the problem:
- "I counted by 2s and got to 17 so I kept adding happy faces and counting by 2s until I got to 24"
- "24 students in total will need to be represented by 12 happy faces. So far there are only 8 and a half, so I need 3 and a half more. All of those will need to be 'cheese'. Those 3 and a half happy faces are 7 students"
