Using Tables to Solve Problems

We have been working on using tables to keep track of patterns, and using patterns to solve problems. Today, Ms Elder read us the book, One Grain of Rice by Demi. 

In the book, a raja (king) tries to keep the kingdom's rice for himself. A girl outwits him by asking for one grain of rice on the first day, then double that every day after for 30 days. At first, it doesn't seem like this will amount to very much rice. But, when we started to do the calculations, we saw how quickly the number of grains grew!

We needed to work as a team and use many whiteboards
to have enough space for our calculations!

We used a table to keep track of the number of days and number of grains.

Together, as a class, we took up our answers.
We needed to do so much adding!

This also led to a great mini-lesson on how to read large numbers. Many students needed help reading past the thousands place. You can help your child at home by reading these large numbers together. 

As an extension, students have been given an optional challenge to add up every grain of rice that Rani received!