Ferber Family Connection
Want to get your child talking about math? A “Math Talk” is a 10-minute activity designed to elicit multiple strategies and provide opportunities for students to reason about the relationships in the numbers and make connections in mathematics.
Check out this great math talk idea to have with your child at home from the resource bedtimemath.org. It can be adjusted to best suit your child’s age and ability.
Dogs love to swim. We even call it the “doggie paddle” when we paw at the water with our arms. Canoe fan David Bahnson knew his dogs felt left out when he’d row away in his canoe. So he cut out seats for them, and now they come with him! They are Golden Retrievers, who weigh around 60-70 pounds each, plus David is in there…if they brought a bag of dog food, could that boat still float?
Wee ones: How many passengers are riding the boat?
Little kids: If the dogs could row, and the back dog rows 1st, then David for a while, then the front dog, then the back dog to start over, then David…who rows next? Bonus: How many seaworthy legs do David and his 2 dogs have?
Big kids: If the trio paddles from shore at 1 pm, rows for 40 minutes, and then rows back in the same time, at what time do they reach shore again? Bonus: If they row 42 feet out into the water and then turn around to come straight back, but the dogs jump out halfway back to shore to swim the rest, how far did the dogs travel by boat?
The sky’s the limit: If David weighs 200 pounds, and the dog in the back weighs 20 pounds more than the other, and all 3 passengers weigh 320 pounds, how much does each dog weigh?
Answers:
Wee ones: 3 passengers.
Little kids: The front dog. Bonus: 10 legs.
Big kids: At 2:20 pm, since they take 80 minutes. Bonus: 63 feet, since they ride the first 42 plus another 21 feet.
The sky’s the limit: 50 pounds and 70 pounds. If the total is 320 pounds, the 2 dogs weigh 120 pounds together. That means if the one who weighed 20 pounds more dropped those 20 pounds, they’d weigh 100 together, or 50 pounds each. Then the bigger dog weighs 20 more than that, or 70 pounds.
