Saturdays at the Bake Sale

It's been awhile since I've posted. It's been a very busy week back.

A little boy made me laugh today by the way he answered a math question. He had to read information off a bar graph, use the values to add two sets of numbers, and then say which one is the larger value. Finally, as most math curriculums like to emphasize, he also had to explain how he knew his answer was correct. The graph gave results of how many of each kind of baked good was sold at the bake sale. He had to figure out which day (Friday or Saturday) sold the most baked goods in all. Before he did any adding, he said, "this is easy. I know the answer." Being a teacher, I said, "I really want you to show your work. No mental math please." So he started calculating, and he said, "I got the answer I expected, so I know why it's right." The answer was Saturday sold more. The explanation we were looking for is something along the lines of I know Saturday was more profitable than Friday because Saturday sold more baked goods. He wrote, "Saturday sold more baked goods because most people are off from work, and they take a break from their diets with bakery food." So cute!