CHRISTMAS

Five presents were bought for Christmas

The red and purple presents together cost £40,

The purple and blue presents together cost £39,

The blue and yellow presents together cost £27,

The yellow and green presents together cost £26,

The green and red presents together cost £38,

What is the total cost of all five presents?

 

 

 

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Keywords: Starter | Algebra | Problem Solving | Xmas

  • Mark Murray,
  • Monday, December 20, 2010
  • "Hi,
    I'm not a teacher. I'm a concerned parent and I'd like to go over a math problem with my kids every morning before school. I'd love to be able to see the solutions to this. Is that possible?
    Thanks
    Mark.

    Mark, if you scroll down the page you will find answers below. Transum"
  • Josh,
  • Monday, December 19, 2011
  • "This was challenging, but I like the seasonal ring to it."

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Answers

The total cost of the five presents can easily be found by adding up the five costs given in the question then dividing by 2. Can you work out why?

The answer is £85.

If you are interested, the individual presents cost:

red = £20, purple = £20, blue = £19, yellow = £8, green = £18.

Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click the button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers.
Computer Teacher, do your students have access to computers?
Do you have "Laptops in Lessons"?

Whether your students each have a TabletPC or share a desktop PC, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

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Here is the URL which will take them to a concise version of this page.

Transum.org/go/?Start=December19

Here's the URL which will take
them to a student version of this activity.

http://www.transum.org/go/?to=Presents