Categories
Money Numbers & Operations in Base 10 Subtraction

[Class Set] – 4th Grade, Money Subtraction

Natasha had $8.72. She spent $4.89 on a gift for her mother. How much money does Natasha have left?

  • I gave this question to my 4th Grade class. (11 kids, one absent.) It was December, I had seen them do a variety of subtraction work. I knew that a lot of them could handle subtraction using something like the standard algorithm — though certainly not everyone — and I was wondering whether a money context would be easier or harder for them. Would you predict that $8.72 – $4.89 would be easier or harder than 872 – 489?
  • What approaches would you predict kids to take for this money problem? What mistakes do you expect to see?

Take a look below, and then report back in the comments:

  • Which student’s approach surprised you the most?
  • Assume that you’ve got time in the curriculum to ask students to work on precisely one question at the beginning of class the next day. What question would you ask to address some of the ideas you see in their work below?

Student 1

4thGradeSubtAssessment_020

Student 2

4thGradeSubtAssessment_002

Student 3

4thGradeSubtAssessment_004

Student 4

4thGradeSubtAssessment_006

Student 5

4thGradeSubtAssessment_008 - Copy

Student 6

4thGradeSubtAssessment_010

Student 7

4thGradeSubtAssessment_012

Student 8

4thGradeSubtAssessment_014

Student 9

4thGradeSubtAssessment_016

Student 10

4thGradeSubtAssessment_018

 

Categories
Decimals Elementary School Measurement & Data Money

Money and Decimals

Brown2

 

What strikes me about this piece of student work is how clean and predictable their mistake is.

Is this sort of mistake the rule or the exception? Does a mistake like this reflect the fact that many/most student errors are due to coherent mental models, or is it the rarer exception in a world dominated by stormy minds that fling ideas at math less predictably?

Thanks again to Dionn!