The first quarter of the year has just come to an end. We have so far completed our units on Fractions and Decimals. By now, my students should be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions decimals and mixed numbers without the use of calculators. We will be moving on and will begin our lesson on Integers (negative numbers) and spend a few weeks covering the rules and operations with integers. I want to give this warning to parents and students that this unit seems to be one of the most difficult concepts to master in their short math careers thus far. I will be going slow and giving specific notes for each topic -- adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing- and having the kids practice each as I present them. I want to ask that you take the time to look over their shoulders and check on their progress as they are doing their homework. If they are having trouble, please advise them to use their notes and follow the examples. This will not be a topic they can take lightly in class and think they can 'figure out' on their own at night. For some, this will be the first time they have ever struggled with a concept and it can get frustrating. I want to give you all a heads up. They WILL get it, some just faster than others.
*******BONUS*******
Here is a little problem you can work on during the days off. I will award 5 bonus quiz points for the next quarter to anyone who can email me or hand me the correct answer by class time Monday. Good luck, this one took me a few tries to come up with the correct answer.
COIN PROBLEM
The fictitious country of Nowhere mints its own coins in three denominations (think nickles, dimes and pennies for example). The fictitious unit of money is called the KIP and each of the 3 coins has a different KIP value. It is a fact that it takes 3 coins to make 20 KIPS, 3 coins to make 23 KIPS and 3 coins to make 29 KIPS. Your challenge is to tell me the value of each of the 3 coins. In other words, for example, 1 coin may be worth 17 KIPS, another worth 2 KIPS and the 3rd coin worth 3 KIPS. If you use all 3 coins (you don't have to use all 3 coins though) you get 20 KIPS (17 + 2 + 3), but you can not get all three totals (20, 23, and 29) using these 3 coins. You MAY use the same coin more than once when choosing 3 coins -- you can choose to use the 17 KIP coin and two 3 KIP coins to make a total of 23 KIPS (17 + 3 + 3) or you can choose three 17 KIP coins to give you a total of 51 KIPS (17 + 17 + 17). In other words, you can use any coin more than once and you do NOT have to use all 3 different coins each time you try to get the totals (20, 23, 29). You must use 3 coins each time and the totals have to be 20, 23 and 29. See if you can find the values for each of the 3 coins.
this is not a play on words, it is a math logic problem.
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