Money, Money, Money!

To finish off the end of Term we have been focusing on Money in Maths. Mrs Baldwin has been providing us with mental routines to begin each lesson followed by a problem solving activity.

Mental Routine

The mental routines develop our maths vocabulary and also allow us to use our prior knowledge to answer questions. We used a white board marker and a plastic packet with a sheet inside where we recorded our thoughts.

Types of Questions

The questions were based on lolly sticks @ 15 cents and pizza lollies @ 55 cents.

Closed Questions: where there is only 1 answer to the question

eg: I bought a lolly stick and paid for it using three coins. What were they?

Open Questions: Where there is more than 1  possible answer

eg: I bought 3 items and rounded their total price to the nearest 10 cents. What might I have bought and what would the rounded price be?

Flipped Questions: where we play a game as a class which involves us asking questions to solve the answer.

The Problem

Next Mrs Baldwin has been giving us some problem solving activities about Money. The other day we were given this question:

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When we answer the question we can draw, use numbers, equipment or any other strategy that we think would help us to complete the task. There were many different ways that our class solved the problem. What was great about this task was that we had more than one question to answer which kept making us think and would challenge us further.

The important thing that we needed to do was to make sure that we explained our thinking when we thought we solved the question. This can be a tricky task for some of us however it is very important to be able to explain our thinking and the strategy used because it allows us to think deeply, ask questions and strengthen our problem solving skills.

Reflection Time

Mrs Baldwin asked for some of us to share our strategy by showing the class on the board. This allowed us to be the teacher because we had to explain and teach our strategy to everybody. This is also a very brave thing to do and it was wonderful to see how many of us were keen to participate in this task. Four of us shared a different strategy on the board. It was fascinating to see the many different ways and thinking to solve the same question. This then lead to a discussion about which strategy would be the best. We did think that it didn’t matter that much how we solved the problem as long as we could explain our strategy. However we also discovered that some strategies would take longer than others to complete and that if we could find another way to solve the problem quicker that this would be helpful for us.

Check out some of the strategies below:

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This activity allowed for some great conversations. One thing that some of us wondered about was our neatness and setting out of the answer. We wondered how important it was to make sure our working out was neatly presented. We came to decision that neatness would not be the MOST important thing to remember when we answer a problem solving activity, however we do need to make sure that it is neat enough for us to understand so that we can check our answer when we have finished.

As a class we checked the correct answer with a calculator. Everyone had a correct strategy that we used, however some of us discovered that we needed to check our answer carefully just like we do with editing our writing. It is very important that we allow time to check our answers by either using another strategy to see if we get the same answer or perhaps use a calculator.

Some of us then created some questions about Money of our own and spent the computing lesson typing them up. Mrs Baldwin will give these to the class as another challenge to complete.

This was a fantastic lesson that was run by US the students. We did the teaching whilst Mrs Baldwin listened and asked us questions when it was needed.

Well done Room 10!

What strategy did you use to solve this problem?

Why do you think it is important to learn how to solve money problems?

Do you feel confident in being able to teach someone your strategy to another person? Why?

7 thoughts on “Money, Money, Money!

  1. Dear mrs b,
    i used a strategy that i ave never used before
    It is I’mportant so if your an adult you can sort quicker
    yes because i did quit well

  2. Dear mrs Baldwin,
    I used the dot strategy. you learn and can get batter at the maths problem. I was confident but nerves as well.

  3. dear mrs baldwin,

    i used one similar to Connor but i did 26 5 cent coins, 39 10 cent coins, 43 20 cent coins and 22 50 cents.

    I think it is important to learn how to solve money problems because we use many in everyday life.

    yes i do feel confident in being able to teach someone my strategy because i think my strategy is good.

    from amani

  4. Dear Mrs Baldwin I have used a number strategy with the maths.

    The maths strategy was enjoyable I found it interesting and fun.

    I really hope that we do something like that again it was great.

    From Kadie

  5. Dear mrs baldwin
    the strategy i used for the money strategy i used for the money maths was times table the was strategy i thornt that the strategy was interesting

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