Solutions

Excellent!  Are you ready to check your child’s answer? Look below to see if their solution matches ours.

Lower Elementary:
Answer:  30 orchid plants
Solution:   Since there are 3 rows of 5 pots, there are 5 + 5 + 5 = 15 pots. Since there are two orchid plants in each pot, there are 15 + 15 = 30 orchid plants in total. Laura and Harold replanted 30 orchid plants.

Upper Elementary:
Answer:  432 blocks
Solution:   A foot is 12 inches, so the box is 12 blocks wide × 12 blocks long × 12 blocks tall = 1,728 cube-shaped blocks in volume. If Christine takes three-quarters of the blocks out, that means that there’ll be one-quarter of them left in the box. So, we divide: 1,728 ÷ 4 = 432. There are 432 blocks left in the box.

Middle School:
Answer:  Brooklyn ate ¹/₈₄ of the ice cream more than Noah.
Solution:   To find the difference, we’ll need to find the least common denominator of the fractions. Since the LCM of 12 and 14 is 84, we need to convert the fractions to 84ths. Noah ate ⁵/₁₂ = ³⁵/₈₄ of the ice cream, and Brooklyn ate ⁶/₁₄ = ³⁶/₈₄ of the ice cream. Brooklyn therefore ate ³⁶/₈₄ – ³⁵/₈₄ = ¹/₈₄ of the ice cream more than Noah.

Algebra and Up:
Answer:  40°
Solution:   Since AG is a line, 6z = 180°. So, z = 180° ÷ 6 = 30°.  We also know that x + y + 2z = 180°, or x + y + 60 = 180°, or x + y = 120°. If x = 2y, then we can conclude that 3y = 120°. So, y must be 120° ÷ 3 = 40°.