Christmas shopping
Vera is shopping at a market with these coins in her purse. Which
things could she give exactly the right amount for?
Age
7 to 11
Challenge level
Problem
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Vera is shopping at a market with these coins in her purse. Which things could she give exactly the right amount for?
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Student Solutions
Jessica and Mark from Langwathby C of E School in Penrith, Cumbria sent us this solution:
You can buy the cat, dinosaur and rock. We chose an item and worked out whether we could make that amount by using the coins provided.
Which coins do you need for these three items? Perhaps you can tell us.
Teachers' Resources
Why do this problem?
Children can use a range of strategies to work on
this problem . The youngest children might rely on counting and
would benefit from using real or 'play' coins. Other children might
use strategies related to counting 2's and 5's. More experienced
children could use addition and think in multiples.
Key questions
What would you like to try to buy first?
Which things can you buy using the 20?
Which things can you buy using the 10?
Possible extension
Encourage the children to find all the combinations of coins
that could be used for each item. When the answer to the problem
has been found, ask them to calculate the change that would be
given when the items identified in the solution were
purchased.
Challenge the children to make up more questions to be
answered. For example:
- Choose what you would buy, then work out the total price.
- Is it possible to spend all the coins?
- What is the maximum number of items that could be bought?
- Change the prices so that all items would need change given.