Problem: A squirrel made a pile of nuts. It ran away an found 55 more nuts for its nest. Now there are 125 nuts. How many nuts were in the pile in the beginning. Understand: What is the problem asking me to do? The problem is asking me to find out how many nuts were in the squirrel’s pile if it found 55 more and now has 125 nuts. Plan: Choose a strategy to solve the problem: The plan is a change problem because an action takes place. Solve the problem: I will count backward on a number grid from 125 to find out how many nuts the squirrel had in the beginning. Check: Look back: how do you know the answer is correct: The squirrel had 70 nuts in the beginning. I knew that the squirrel found 55 more nuts and then had a total of 125. I wanted to find out how many nuts the squirrel had in the beginning. I counted backward from 125 by 10’s and then by 5 until I had counted back 55. I landed on 70. That’s how I know that the squirrel had 70 nuts in the beginning.
