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My 1st grader would NOT be able to do it on her own. Part of that is because she isn't that great at reading (it's a work in progress) but also because they are only now just beginning to get into subtraction in her class. *Maybe* closer to the end of the school year....
My older children had problems just like this in second grade. I think they are great. They are logic questions that help their problem solving skills. My oldest had a terrible time trying to solve them. My middle daughter thought they were easy. In both cases we drew pictures to help solve the problems. I will have to try the one you posed with my first grader. I am curious if she will be able to do such a problem yet. If you take these problems sentence by sentence and draw pictures, many little kids can do them.
Is this everyday math? If so you're in for a long hard road of stupid math homework.
LOL. This is very true. EM also assumes that kids have the reading skills to get through that problem. Not all of them would at that stage in first grade.
The question is bogus. Few=3. So you can't say a few got off at the first stop & 3+1 got off at the second stop.
I figured the same KrazeeKrewe....no first grader would ever get it.....the word "few" is very unfair, they should have said a "couple", then it would make sense....no wonder some kids have such a hard time .
Update to my earlier post... I asked my 1st grader the question and she immediately picked up on "few" and insisted that answer must be three at the first stop (few = three) and four at the second (one more than three). She was pretty mad that there were somehow still 5 people on the bus. Poorly written question, imo.
In a bus there are 10 people. At the next stop a few people get off and no one gets on. At the second stop one more person gets off than the number of persons that got off at the first stop. Now there are 5 people in the bus. How many people got off at the first stop and at the second stop?
If you interpret few as 3, than there can be no solution. Or the problem should have said one less person gets off at the second stop.
However, you can interpret few as simply more than one.
Update to my earlier post... I asked my 1st grader the question and she immediately picked up on "few" and insisted that answer must be three at the first stop (few = three) and four at the second (one more than three). She was pretty mad that there were somehow still 5 people on the bus. Poorly written question, imo.
Maybe there are 3 passengers and a driver and his trainee who they forgot to mention at the start lol
I can see how this might be a fun type of problem to work out as a class, especially if it was done in a hands on, visual way.
But I don't think it's the type of problem that most 1st graders would want to sit at a desk and try to figure out all by themselves. I think that approach could get old very fast....
(I agree that this particular problem is misworded)
nana053, you're right, but how many would?..especially little people. Wording in questions for such young minds should really (in my opinion) be worded precisely, this question can be confusing for even an adult, and is a perfect example of why some children are having such a hard time understanding their schoolwork.
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