A 5th grade math story problem about horses

I recently mentioned about changing math problems from closed to open, and gave a few examples.

Just a few days ago my 5th grader was facing a page in Math Mammoth 5 filled with word problems that had to do with conversions between measuring units. So... I asked her to choose and solve 3 problems from that page, and THEN write her own story problem where the solver will need to convert measuring units.

This is what she came up with. I guess I should have guessed the topic. :^)


Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/stradablog/

There are three horses in a paddock, and each weighs a different amount. The first horse weighs 13,760 ounces, the second 1/2 ton, and the last one 1,100 pounds. What is the weight of all the horses together, in pounds? No calculator allowed.

She needed some help, because in her original version, the weights of the horses were not realistic -- but it was good to have a discussion on that, as well.

Try it yourself! Ask your kids to make story problems. You might be surprised. :)

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