Daily Math Encounters

By Pamela S. Stevens

Fourteen Math Word Problems for a 14-Hour Day

Kids have math encounters all day long, although they might not even notice it. Helping kids to see math in their daily lives is more fun than looking at numbers on a piece of paper, and it helps children to learn how to think abstractly.

Here are just a few ways to bring math into kid’s daily lives:

1. 7:00 am – Time

Brent’s alarm clock sounds at 7:00 am. It takes him five minutes to walk to the bus stop and the school bus arrives at 7:50 am. How much time does he have to get ready for school?

2. 8:00 am – Counting in Sets

On the school bus, Jamie notices that there are an equal number of seats on each side of the bus. She counts 12 seats on each side. How many seats are there total? In addition, if two kids sit in each seat, how many kids can sit on the bus?

3. 9:00 am – Money

For the classroom fundraiser, students have raised $94.15. Their goal is to raise $125. How much additional money do they have to collect to reach their goal?

4. 10:00 am – Addition

Brittany’s teaches says that their next spelling bee will only include the vocabulary words from their last four units. If the first unit had 12 words, the second had 10, the third 15 and the fourth had 11, how many words are going to be in the spelling bee altogether?

5. 11:00 am – Subtraction

Julie has 20 stickers to share with her friends. She gives Amy four, Eric two and Isabelle six, how many stickers does she have left?

6. 12:00 pm – Division

Bobby really doesn’t like peas. But in his school lunch, they served him 60 peas! Since he knows it’s important to eat his vegetables, he will eat them, but as slowly as possible! If he has 20 minutes to eat his lunch, how many peas per minute does he have to eat to finish them all before his lunch break is over?

7. 1:00 pm – Area

Kristi is the soccer goalie in her PE class, to keep inside the penalty area she can move a total of 44 yards from side to side and up to 18 yards towards center field. What is the total area of the penalty area?

8. 2:00 pm – Measurements

If Jenny's hair is 14 inches long and Mary’s hair is one foot and three inches long, who has the longest hair?

9. 3:00 pm – Multiplication

April missed two days of school when she was sick, on Friday her teacher gives her the worksheets she missed while she was home ill and the new homework for the weekend. If each work sheet has 20 problems and she missed three per day while she was sick and the new homework for the weekend has five worksheets, how many math problems does she have to do over the weekend to catch up in class?

10. 4:00 pm – Weight

Kenny has a new baby sister, who weights 7 pounds and 4 ounces. If Boots his cat weights 9 pounds and 5 ounces, how much more does Boots weigh than his baby sister?

11. 5:00 pm – Fractions

David’s mom tells him that in one circle there can be a 1/2 section, two 1/8 sections and four 1/16 sections. Is that true?

12. 6:00 pm – Percent

At the dinner table, Chris's parents talk about how nutritious spinach is and they tell him if he eats just one cup of raw spinach it will give him 25% of the Vitamin A that he needs for the day.

For breakfast Chris had an apricot which is about 20%, and with lunch he had a cup of fortified milk that also has about 20% and for his after school snack he had a mango which is about 25%. If he eats a serving of spinach will he get at least 100% of the Vitamin A that he needs for the day? What if he had papaya after school instead, that is about 20%?

13. 7:00 pm – Sorting and Categorizing

Ginna likes to help her dad with the laundry. They are matching the socks for the four people in their family. Her dad wears blue and black dress socks and her mom only wears short socks, her brother wears baby socks and Ginna wears all colors of socks but only cotton socks.

If they find 8 blue dress socks, 4 purple cotton socks, 6 short socks, 9 blue baby socks, 2 black dress socks, 2 yellow cotton socks, 2 short pink socks and 7 green baby socks how many pairs of socks do they find for each member of their family. In addition, do they all match?

14. 8:00 pm – Estimating

After going to bed, Nigel likes to look out his window and count stars. There are four panes in his window, in one pane he counts 252 stars, in the second he counts 95 stars, in the third he counts 176 and in the fourth he counts 410. About how many stars does he see through his window?

If you are interested in math software with word problems for young kids, see Mighty Math Zoo Zillions .

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