Principal Larry Davis emphasizes the importance of math by making Morning Math part of his school's morning routine. Two days a week during morning announcements, he poses "Mr. Davis Math Questions" to the students at Doctors Inlet Elementary School in Middleburg, Florida. Now, you can do the same in your school! Each week, Davis and Education World present two new sets of math questions for you to use to engage students and build math skills.
Click for ideas for using "Morning Math" to build math enthusiasm and skills in your school.
Click to view our archive of Morning Math activities.
Replace Mr. Davis's name with your name in each of the math questions below
Day 1
- Kindergarten: Mr. Davis has 21 nuts. Squirrels ate 18 of the nuts. How many nuts were left? (3 nuts)
- Grade 1: Mr. Davis heard a duck quack 5 times every hour. How many quacks did he hear in 5 hrs? (25 quacks)
- Grade 2: Mr. Davis saw 67 birds. Fifty of those birds were white and the rest were black. How many black birds did Mr. Davis see? (17 black birds)
- Grade 3: Mr. Davis saw 27 girls at the baseball game. He saw 4 times as many boys there. How many boys did he see at the game? (108 boys)
- Grade 4: Mr. Davis had 99 cents. Then he earned 20 times more money. How much did he have in all? ($20.79 -- He earned 99 cents times 20, which is $18.90. Add that to the 99 cents he already had for a total of $20.79.)
- Grade 5: Mr. Davis needed $112. He had $57.98 in his wallet. How much more money did he need? ($54.02)
- Grade 6: Mr. Davis wanted to buy a new car for $34,438. The dealer was willing to give Mr. Davis $17,878 for the car he wanted to trade in. How much will Mr. Davis have to pay for the new car? ($16,540)
Day 2
- Kindergarten: Mr. Davis needs to know how many letters appear in his last name. (5 letters)
- Grade 1: Mr. Davis needs to know how many times the word "chuck" appears in the phrase How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? (4 times)
- Grade 2: Mr. Davis needs to know how many seasons there are. (4 seasons)
- Grade 3: Mr. Davis saw 77 snakes, 67 alligators, and 57 bears. How many reptiles did Mr. Davis see? (144. Note: Bears are not reptiles.)
- Grade 4: Mr. Davis needs to know the next number in this series:
1, 100, 3, 90, 5, 80, 7, ___. (70)
- Grade 5: Mr. Davis scored 62 points in a basketball game. He shot no foul shots, but he did score some 3-pointers. What is the largest number of 3-pointers he could have made? (20 3-pointers would have added up to 60 points)
- Grade 6: Mr. Davis needs to know the solution to this math problem:
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 (Solution: 12,345,678,987,654,321)