We are having lots of fun blogging.  Thank you so much for the wonderful comments.  Having an audience for our writing and our ideas is very motivating.

We hope you’ll enjoy our third post.  This one has to do with the new math we are learning.  Each of the students created and posted a multiplication riddle following the format of Each Orange Had Eight Slices.

We hope you enjoy them.  If you solve any of the riddles, please leave your answers in a comment.  Have fun with math!

December had 108 books to move from the living room to the bookshelf in her bedroom.  She could carry nine books at a time.  How many trips did she make to move her all books?

Willow was planted some flower pots with morning glories for her yard.  One package of seeds planted three flower pots.  How many packages of seed did Willow need to plant all 18 of her flower pots?

Izzy created a riddle about a pool party she went to over the summer.  She wrote:  There were some people and some dogs at the pool party.  There were 30 legs altogether.  How many people were there?  How many dogs were there?  How many different correct answers can you find?

Alex spilled a bin with 156 markers in it.  They dropped out of their boxes as they fell.  Alex had to put them back into the boxes when she picked them up.  If each box held 12 markers, how many boxes did Alex fill when she finished putting all the markers away?

Derek and Miles went to the movies.  Derek bought the two movie tickets for $7.35 each.  Miles bought two buckets of popcorn for $5.60 each.  How much more money did Derek spend than Miles?

Annika paints rocks and sells them at craft fairs.  She charges $6.25 for a large rock.  She charges $5.80 for a small rock.  Last week she sold six large rocks and three small rocks.  How much money did she make in all?

Emily’s acting class started at 10:42 am and it ended at 1:28 pm.  How long in hours and minutes did Emily’s acting class last?

Leave your math thinking and answers in a comment below.  Have fun!

Brian was playing soccer.  He practiced 3 days a week for 90 minutes and played games with 25 minute halves two times a week.  How many minutes did Brian spend practicing and playing soccer in a week?  How many hours and minutes is that altogether?   

Brian practiced and played soccer for six weeks of the summer.  How much practice and playing time is that altogether?  Congratulations on the dedication and effort Brian.

Tavi was having fun at farm camp.  He was picking the peppers and tomatoes.  There were 6 peppers ready to be picked on each pepper plant.  There were 4 tomatoes ready to be picked in each tomato plant.  Tavi walked down the rows of plants – there were 12 pepper plants and 24 tomato plants.  How many peppers did Tavi pick?  How many tomatoes did he pick?

Dylan was learning how to do some trick on his skateboard.  He wanted to do the Nollie Shove It and the Fake Frontside 180.  Dylan knew what to do, he just needed to practice.  He spent two hours each morning and forty-five minutes each afternoon everyday for two whole weeks.  Finally he could do those tricks easily.  How much time to Dylan spend practicing his skateboard tricks altogether until he met his goal?

Ryan went to the beach.  He collected 235 periwinkle shells, 496 clam and mussel shells and 187 whelk shells.  He used 379 of them in picture frame project.  How many shells did Ryan have left?

Jack started writing a new “Candy Awesomeness” story.  On Monday he wrote 1,652 words.  On Tuesday he wrote 2,019 words and on Wednesday he wrote 973 words.  When he finished the story on Thursday it had 5,250 words.  How many words did Jack add on Thursday to finish his story?

Maxim decided that he would try to read Crenshaw, Pax and Endling – the last during summer vacation.  Crenshaw has 256 pages. Pax has 288 pages and Endling has 380 pages.  How many pages will Maxim have read when he is half way to meeting his goal?

Corbin did 43 back bounces on his trampoline in one minute.  If he bounced that many times for eight minutes, how many back bounces would he have completed altogether?

Izzy was collecting as many cute guinea pig pictures as she could find.  On Monday she found 326 guinea pig memes.  On Tuesday she found 104 guinea pig paintings and on Wednesday she found 275 guinea pig drawings.  She used 438 of the pictures to make a poster sharing how great guinea pigs are as pets.  How many pictures does she have left?

Alex swam in her pool everyday for 45 minutes or more. At the end of a week, how many minutes did Alex swim in her pool?  How many hours and minutes would that be?

 We’ve been learning how the Distributive Property can help us multiply larger numbers.  Use the picture to remind you of the steps, and then give these problems a try.  You can leave your equations and solution in a comment when you do them.

Miles was reading The Stick Dog series.  Three of the books had 238 pages.  The other three books in the series had 208 pages.   How many pages did Miles read altogether?

Jack had 28 moves in his kata.  On Wednesday he practiced the kata 5 times in a row because he was working to earn his brown belt.  How many moves did he practice altogether on Wednesday?

Emily was writing a story.  She wrote 241 words in each page.  Her story had 9 pages.  How many words did Emily write in her story altogether?

Jim is at raking leaves.  He earns $9.00 an hour when he rakes.  Beth is a good babysitter.  She earns $12.00 an hour when she babysits.  Beth works 6 hours in one week.  How many hours does Jim need to work to earn the same amount of money as Beth did?

Henry’s school decided to raise money for field trips by holding a farmer’s market.  They should cabbages, kale, broccoli and potatoes.  After adding together all of their earnings, Henry discovered they had made $303.  If they sold cabbages for $42 kale for $51 and broccoli for $77, how much money did they earn by selling potatoes?

This one will take quite a lot of thinking.  Take your time and enjoy it!

Nick had 3 pet frogs named Doris, Boris and Morris.  He weighs them to make sure they are healthy.  However, the frogs will only be weighed two at a time.

Here’s what Nick found out.  Can you use his data to find out how much each frog weighs?

Doris and Boris weigh 12 grams altogether.

Boris and Morris weigh 16 grams altogether.

Doris and Morris weigh 14 grams altogether.

We have five different bird feeders.  We love to watch birds, but sometimes it seems as if we really have squirrel feeders.  Right now as I type, two gray squirrels are arguing about who should be eating first, two other gray squirrels are chasing each other up a tree, two red squirrels are foraging under a different feeder and two chipmunks are racing from the feeder to their home along the stonewall.  Yes, there are some birds around too, but by far, the best fed animals in the yard have fuzzy tails!

Watching them prompted me to do a little research to see what kinds of problems I could create.  Fun Fact:  Squirrels bury  2/3’s more seeds than they recover.  That means they plant a lot of trees!

It is guessed that squirrels eat 187 nuts or seeds each day. How many nuts and seeds will five squirrels eat altogether in one day?  How many will they eat in a week?

Squirrels can run 20 miles per hour.  How many miles will they have run in 6 hours?

Squirrels can leap 18 feet.  How many feet will a squirrel go altogether if it leaps 6 times?

Chipmunks are hoarders.  That means they hide A LOT of food underground for later.  In one burrow the chipmunks had stored 21,574 nuts, 1,869 berries, 45 bird eggs and  32,083 seeds.  How much food had the chipmunks stored altogether?

Flying squirrels are amazing gliders.  The length of a typical glide is 78 feet.  The longest glide is around 295 feet.  How many more feet did the flying squirrel glide in the longest glide than in the typical glide?

Writing these problems reminds me of the Maryann Hoberman poem we shared together.  Do you remember it?

Nuts to you, and nuts to me!

Walnut, chestnut, hickory,

Butter-, coco-, hazel-, pea-

Nuts to you and its to me!

If you find time to do these problems, I’d love to know.  Leave a comment.  Do you have any stories about squirrels in your yard?  I’d love to hear them.

Rachael went to a garage sale.  Each stuffed animal cost 5 dollars.  How much money did Rachael spend on the 13 stuffed animals that she bought?

Max went to the zoo.  He spent a lot of time at the sloth exhibit.  Three-toed sloths have four legs.  There were 25 sloths in the exhibit.  How many toes did Max figure the sloths had altogether?

Zack went to the reptile show.  There was a ball python that was 13 inches long.  The boa constrictor was ten times longer than the ball python.  How long did Zack figure the boa constrictor was?

Julie can ride her bike 12 miles an hour.  How many miles can she ride her bike in 31 hours?