Which is the best strategy to solve this problem?
Mary-Ann is making gift baskets for her friends. She has 32 candles and 64 lotion bottles. She splits the candles and lotion bottles equally among 8 baskets.
How many items were in each basket?
Draw a diagram.
Draw 8 circles to represent baskets. Think 32 ÷ 8 = 4, so draw 4 candles in each circle. Think 64 ÷ 8 = 8, so draw 8 dots in each circle. Count up the objects in a circle to find the number of items in each basket.
Guess and test.
Guess that the number of items in each basket is 9. Multiply 8 × 9. Ask yourself if this is the same as the sum of 32 + 64? If not, revise your guess, and test your answer again.
Write a number sentence.
(32 + 64) × 8 =
