Three Number Story Problems from the Kitchen, Garden, and Toy Basket

This idea walks around your house all day. Almost nothing in a kitchen comes from one source. A soup gathers from garden, pantry, and market at once. This is worth learning because real life adds more than two things together most of the time.

Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look. This is a good thing for a young mathematician to know. Now put it to work. Three carrots, four beans, and two peppers came from the garden.

How many vegetables? Look for a friendly pair, add it first, then bring in the last number. Four and two make six, plus three makes nine. Read the whole story first, find all three numbers, then choose your order. Finish by asking whether nine vegetables sounds sensible for what the story described.

One caution about stories with three numbers. Make sure all three actually belong in the total. If one number tells you something else, like how many baskets you carried, adding it in will spoil the answer. Ask what each number counts before you use it. Do it carefully rather than quickly, and thank God for a mind that can learn.