This morning I gave my 5th grade students this morning math problem:
What day of the week is tomorrow if 4 days after the day before yesterday is Tuesday?
Well after giving students time to think, I asked students what they got as the answer. It was then that I figured out I had no idea how to solve this problem to get the answer that the math book gave. After hearing from the students and asking the other 5th grade teachers, we were all getting a different answer (and of course no one was getting the answer that the book gave). I knew that I could not just leave the students with an unanswered question so we ended with them having the assignment to go home and ask their family what they think. So I took this problem outside the classroom to solve. I emailed the problem to some friends and family to ask for help. About an hour later when I checked my email I saw that one person had sent to problem to her whole company and everyone that responded with the correct answer was put in a drawing to win a gift card.
After hearing back from a couple of people we were able to solve and explain it- sometimes it helps to think like a 5th grader and not make things so complicated. A huge thanks to Olive, who solved it first and who was able to give me an explanation in a way that the 5th graders could understand.
Before I knew it, friends were emailing me with their answer and if they got it right, I would just respond with: "Congrats! You are smarter than a 5th grader!"
Go ahead, give the problem above a try and see if YOU are smarter than a 5th grader!
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