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Math Tacular 4 Answer Key Introduction

Welcome to the MathTacular 4 Workbook Answer Key!

Do you remember word problems in math class when you were growing up? Did you love them, or did you sometimes find yourself staring at the page until the words blurred together, wondering where to begin? If only someone had given you a “plan of attack” that worked every time…

Well, that’s what we’ve done here. We hope the instruction in this program will give you and your children the tools you need to overcome Word Problem Intimidation. Take a few minutes to review the Simple Steps to Solve Word Problems located on the inside back cover of this book. These are the same steps Detective Justin Time presents on the DVD, which will teach your little problem solvers how to determine what each problem is asking, and how to pull the relevant information out of that daunting block of words. The more you and your children work through these steps, the more second-nature they will become, and before long, it will seem as though those pesky word problems have finally met their match.

How to use this workbook set with the MathTacular 4 DVD:

In order to understand the MathTacular 4 story, we recommend you begin by watching the first few scenes on the DVD. We’ll introduce you to our hero, Detective Justin Time, and the task before him: to assist Amber Waves with her Word Puzzler woes, and eventually rescue her pork-napped pig, Polly Esther.

As each chapter of the story unfolds, our heroes encounter word problems—the same Sample word problems found at the beginning of each chapter in the Workbook. Before we solve the problem on the DVD, Detective Time will first ask your children to try to solve the problem on their own in their book. Keep in mind that the DVD will stop on its own (unless you’ve selected “Play All”) to give them time to do so. Even if they’ve never done this type of word problem before, have them give it their best shot. When they’re done, go back to the DVD, press “Continue” and the heroes in our story will walk them through the solution to the word problem.

Once you’ve solved the Sample problem, Detective Time will give your children an opportunity to work on the Practice Problems that complete each chapter in this book. When they’re finished, have your children compare their answers to the answers found in this Answer Key. Once they’ve finished all of the additional word problems in a particular section, continue watching the DVD and move on to the next type of word problem—and the next part of the adventure!

Be sure to check out the handy Tool Kit (see page 165 of the Workbook) that contains lists of Clue Words, Units and Measurements and other nuggets that will help your children solve the problems in this program.

Pacing: Please review the list of skills provided after each chapter title on the Table of Contents. This program covers a very wide range of mathematical skills—probably some your younger children have yet to learn in math class. But that’s okay! Your children will probably enjoy the story line of the DVD (which is why we’ve included the “Play All” feature), and may pick up a few things as they watch our heroes solve each word problem. We encourage you to incorporate the problems in the Workbook as you cover each skill in your own math curriculum.

About the Answer Key

We created this Answer Key to complete the MathTacular 4 program. Not only does it contain the solution to every problem presented in the Student Workbook, but we’ve mapped out all of the steps it will take your student to solve each and every word problem—start to finish. By showing your children how we arrived at our answer, we can not only demonstrate how to logically think through a problem to find a solution, but also gently redirect your children’s thinking should it veer off course, and help them figure out where they might have gone wrong. However, just as there are many ways to stuff a taco, there are also sometimes several ways to arrive at the same answer to a word problem. If your children discover a different path to solve a problem than one we present here, applaud them! Some of our answers even include a separate box that describes an “Alternate Way to Solve” a particular problem. Please do not require your children to always mimic our process—sometimes the way they’ve processed the information will make more sense to them, and as long as their math and the answer they find checks out, we’re happy.

Even though they may deem it worse than trip to the dentist, please encourage your children to always show their work. When they don’t and they miss an answer, they will probably also miss the opportunity to learn from where their thinking went awry when they check the solution in this book. In addition, some teachers and professors in their future may give partial credit on tests if they can figure out where your child went wrong—credit they’ll miss out on if they’re not in the habit of showing their work.

A Wide Range of Skills: Since we believe that anyone can learn to conquer word problems, we have designed this program to cover a very wide scope of mathematical skills. While there’s a good chance that younger students haven’t yet studied, say, fractions or ratios in their math curriculum, they will probably still enjoy watching our heroes work through the word problems to find the clues that lead them to Polly Esther, and they will probably absorb some of the mathematical concepts they’ll experience along the way. If you’d like to take it a step further, you can read through the solutions to the tougher problems in the Answer Key, and then see if your children can work out the problem independently. Keep in mind that if you still have many more years of math study in your future, you’ll be able to use this program again and again. You’ll be able to introduce more of the extra problems in this workbook as your children learn to master new topics in their math curriculum. Whether MathTacular 4 is one of your fun Friday activities or you simply revisit it periodically as you learn new skills in your own math curriculum, we hope this program will become one of your favorite learning tools for years to come.

Final Important Fact About word Problems: Please remind your children that, regardless of length, most word problems are like newspaper articles—they present the facts. If a word problem didn’t specifically give certain information, you probably don’t need to know it in order to solve the problem. So, say a problem only gives information about Bernardo belly dancing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It’s safe to assume, then, that Bernardo did not belly dance the rest of the week. Help your children succeed by encouraging them to take these problems at face value.

Calculators? Of course, it is always your choice whether you’d like your children to use a calculator when they’re working on mathematical computations. While it’s always good “mental exercise” for your children to practice basic math facts, remember that pulling the right information out of a word problem and then correctly building a math problem with that information (that will take you to the right answer) is a daunting and complicated task in itself. We encourage you to use this program to first mold the problem solving skills it takes to tackle word problems, and only require calculator-free math when it isn’t an added burden. (How much “chicken-scratching” does it take to solve $265.30 ÷ 14? Or are you reaching for your calculator too?)