This month’s challenges come from Inside Mathematics and reinforce the Standards for Mathematical Practice. To learn more about the Standards for Mathematical Practice, click here. There are three different levels of challenge each month. Level A for Grades K-2; Level B for Grades 3-4; and Level C for Grades 5-6. Please use the age ranges as suggestions as students can attempt any version, or all if they so choose.

Please help us encourage a growth mindset in your child by asking about the Problems of the Month. If you see your child attempting one of these challenges, feel free to ask guiding questions, share problem-solving strategies, or help with organizing their thinking, but please resist the urge to help him/her solve it. Whether or not the right answer is found is not necessarily the point, it is all about the process! Our intention is to provide opportunities for our students to see themselves as critical thinkers and problem-solvers by helping them connect and apply what they are learning in their classrooms to novel, real-world situations and to learn to persevere in solving them independently.

A weekly problem-solving participant will be selected to receive a fun math pencil, and get a shout-out on the morning broadcast.

Please direct your child to submit his/her solution(s) to the Math Mailbox, Mrs. Waz, or his/her classroom teacher. The mailbox and Problem of the Month display can be found around the corner from the fish tank in the main hallway, on the right-hand side, just before the library. Each classroom teacher has been given a full set of these problems to increase access, especially for students in the primary grades.

If you have any questions about the Problem of the Month, including to request a copy or for suggestions on how to help your child in solving problems like these, please do not hesitate to contact me.