Problem Solving Prompts

Learning Goals:

  • Solve problems involving the addition and multiplication of multi-digit whole numbers
  • Communicate mathematical thinking orally and visually

The Challenge:

Samantha has chickens and sheep on her farm.
Each chicken has two legs and each sheep has four legs.
Each chicken has one head and each sheep has one head.

She looked out one day and counted exactly 48 animal heads and 134 legs in total.

How many of each animal live on the farm?

Questions and Prompts to Support your Child:

  • What have you tried? If that didn’t work, do we need more or less?
  • How did you know you found the correct number of sheep and chickens?
  • How did you know that the farm couldn’t have only chickens or only sheep?

Extensions & Adaptations:

  • If struggling with calculations, have a calculator handy!
  • If having trouble getting started, choose a number of sheep and work forward from there – would that be too many sheep or not enough?
  • Create your own situation with a different number of sheep and chicken to challenge someone else, then calculate the number of animal heads and legs total so that you know the final answer!

Source: University of Waterloo – CEMC Problem of the Week Database