Math Practice Problems for Fifth Grade in Algebraic Sense

5A-31) Answer: newspapers-20 lb.; tin-5 lb.; glass-15 lb.

The total weight of recycled material was 40 pounds. The newspapers weighed four times the tin. The glass is five pounds less than the newspapers. Find how many pounds of each material was recycled.  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-30) Answer: 169, 170, 171, and 172

The sum of four page numbers that come one after another is 682. What are the page numbers?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-29) Answer: 630 cards

Sara, Ann, and Eric were collecting baseball cards. Sara had 210 cards. Ann had twice as many cards as Sara. Eric has as many cards as Sara and Ann together. How many baseball cards did Eric have?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-28) Answer: 1 copy

The Bookworm had 20 copies of Raising Your Rabbit Right!. After a week they had 17 copies left. At the end of two weeks they had 16 copies left and after three weeks they had 13 copies left. At the end of four weeks they had 12 copies left. If they kept selling copies of the book at this same rate, how many copies would they have left at the end of nine weeks?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-27) Answer: 75 fish

The seagulls were following the Sea Wolf, because Ted and Mike had a good catch that morning. They counted their fish and after the fourth hour there were 40. The third hour there were one half as many fish as in the fourth hour, and during the second hour there were half as many as they counted in the third hour. The first hour there were one half as many as in the second hour. How many fish did Ted and Mike catch altogether during the four hours?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-26) Answer: 5 days later

There were two baby dolphins at the South City Aquarium. Baby Dave is 25 days old and baby Dan is 5 days old. When will Dave be three times as old as Dan?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-25) Answer: Amy=90 minutes; George=30 minutes

It took George and Amy a total of 2 hours to put up all the notices for the pet show. They posted notices on trees and bulletin boards around town. All kinds of prizes were to be given, including one for the "ugliest" pet. Amy worked three times as long as George putting up signs. How long did each of them work?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-24) Answer: 12 hours-red; 13 hours-yellow

Morris hated raking leaves. There were two trees that he hated the most, because they always were dropping leaves. One day he decided to count how many red and yellow leaves dropped from the trees every hour. In the first hour there were 8 red leaves and 8 yellow leaves on the ground. In the second hour there were 12 yellow leaves and 15 red leaves on the ground. In the third hour he counted 15 yellow leaves and 16 red leaves on the ground. In the fourth hour there were 19 yellow leaves and 23 red leaves on the ground. Then at the end of the fifth hour he found 22 yellow leaves and 24 red leaves on the ground. If the leaves kept dropping at the same rate, how many hours would it take for 50 red leaves and 50 yellow leaves to drop on the ground?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-23) Answer: 9 days

Jim's Market couldn't keep Crunchy Critter Crackers in stock. Jim started with 300 boxes but everyone wanted them. The first day Jim sold 6 boxes, and on the second day he sold 14 boxes. Each day 8 more boxes were sold than the day before. So after two days, he had sold 20 boxes. If he kept selling the crackers at this rate, when would Jim run out of Crunchy Critter Crackers?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-22) Answer: 10 Borandas, 11 Morundas or 14 Morundas, 8 Borandas

With loud beeps, the spaceships from the planets Morunda and Boranda touched down. The Morunda spaceships each landed on 8 robot "feet," and the Boranda spaceships each landed on 12 robot "feet." When the spaceships left, someone counted 208 "feet" marks in the dust. How many spaceships had been there from each planet?

5A-21) Answer: Week 12

At the skateboard park near Ivan, there seemed to be more skateboarders each week. Ivan counted 20 skateboarders one week. The next week there were 27; and the next week there were 31. There were 38 skateboarders the fourth week and 42 the fifth week. In what week would Ivan count 80 or more skateboarders?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-20) Answer: 6 days

Wilma, a wicked witch, decided to steal 300 ladybugs for her garden. On the first day she took 20 ladybugs. On the second day she took 15 more ladybugs than on the first day. Each day she took 15 more ladybugs than she had taken the day before. How many days did it take Wilma the wicked witch to steal more than 300 ladybugs?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-19) Answer: 1 hour

Tisha and Joy went to a farm where you could pick your own strawberries. In the first 10 minutes together they picked 21 strawberries. In the second 10 minutes they picked 11 more strawberries than they did in the first 10 minutes, or 32 strawberries. In the third 10 minutes they picked 11 more strawberries than they picked in the second 10 minutes, or a total of 43. Each 10 minutes they picked 11 more strawberries than they had picked during the previous 10 minutes. How long would it take them to pick over 250 strawberries?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-18) Answer: Samantha-9 minutes

Samantha and Cindy were in a canoe race. They had to race 150 yards. The wind was blowing very hard on the lake. After the first minute Samantha was 35 yards from the starting point and Cindy was 25 yards. After the second minute Samantha and Cindy were both 30 yards from the starting line. At the end of three minutes Samantha was 65 yards and Cindy 55 yards from the starting line. After four minutes both Samantha and Cindy were 60 yards from the starting line. If they kept going at the same rate, who won the race and how many minutes did it take her?   Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-17) Answer: 55 + 55 = 110

Can you replace the letters with numerals to make a true equation? AA + AA = BBC   Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-16) Answer: 8 blue, 8 yellow

Ann and Marie are on the same team in a trivia game. Each team answers questions that are on blue cards worth 7 points, and yellow cards worth 9 points. Ann and Marie's team have 128 points so far. How many of the questions they have answered were on blue cards and how many were on yellow cards?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-15) Answer: 6 days

Ted and Sam have new bikes and already Ted has ridden 8 miles. Sam has ridden 1 mile. If each one rides 1 mile a day, how many days will it be before Ted has ridden twice as far as Sam?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-14) Answer: 20

Lee is keeping track of how many people request the two most popular books in the library. During the first week there were 5 requests for both Freaky Frisbees From Outer Space and Harlow, the Talking Goat. During the second week there were 7 requests for the frisbee book and 9 for the goat book. During the third week there were 9 requests for the frisbee book and 8 requests for the goat book. During the fourth week there were 11 requests for the frisbee book and 12 requests for the goat book and during the fifth week there were 13 requests for the frisbee book and 11 requests for the goat book. If this rate continued, how many people would ask for the goat book when 25 people were asking for the frisbee book?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-13) Answer: 35 cents/pencil; 5 cents/eraser

A pencil and an eraser cost 40 cents. If the pencil costs 30 cents more than the eraser, what is the cost of the eraser?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-12) Answer: 20 riders; 16 horses

There were 36 heads and 104 legs in a group of horses and riders. How many horses were in the group? How many riders were in the group?   Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-11) Answer: 12 and 4

The sum of two numbers is 16 and their product is 48. What are the numbers?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-10) Answer: in 64 days

Jessica has a softball game every 3 days. She has a piano lesson every 7 days. Every fourth day it is her turn to wash the dishes after supper. Today Jessica has a softball game and piano lesson, and it is her turn to wash the dishes. How soon will these three activities occur again on the same day?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-9) Answer: $4-plane; $5-model boats

The total cost of a model plane and a model boat is $9. The total cost of 3 model planes and 2 model boats is $22. What is the cost of a model plane? What is the cost of a model boat?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-8) Answer: 8 tables

There are rectangular tables in the school cafeteria. Two students can sit on each side, and one student can sit at each end. How many tables need to be pushed together to form one long table that will seat 34? Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-7) Answer: 2 boxes

A cereal company puts a 10 cents-off coupon in every other box of cereal it packages. It puts a pencil in every fifth box. It puts a coupon for a free hamburger in every eighth box. Out of the first 100 boxes, how many will have a 10 cents-off coupon, a pencil, and a coupon for a free hamburger?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-6) Answer: Thurs.$18; Fri.$9; Sat.$36

On Friday Ann earned half as much as she did on Thursday. On Saturday she earned twice as much as she earned on Thursday. If her total earnings on those three days was $63, how much did she earn on each day?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-5) Answer: Red-5; yellow-10; white-11; blue-22

A jar contains 48 marbles. Each marble is yellow, blue, red, or white. There are twice as many yellow as red marbles and twice as many blue as white marbles. There are 6 more white marbles than red marbles. How many marbles of each color are there?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-4) Answer: 9 minutes

The number of people seated in a theater doubled every minute. It took 10 minutes to completely fill the theater. How many minutes did it take for the theater to become half full?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-3) Answer: 5 spiders and 7 beetles

Jill's bug collection contains 12 beetles and spiders. Beetles are worth 10 cents and spiders are worth 20 cents. Altogether Jill's collection is worth $1.70. How many beetles and how many spiders does Jill have?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-2) Answer: $17 for a hat

A dress and a hat cost $40. The Dress cost $6 more than the hat. What was the cost of the hat?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

5A-1) Answer: $4-baseball; $10-soccer ball

Mr. Lee, a physical education teacher, bought 4 soccer balls and 5 baseballs for the school. The total cost was$60. A soccer ball costs $6 more than a baseball. What is the price of a baseball and a soccer ball?  Write to help explain your best thinking using words, numbers, or pictures.

Share a problem (thank you) to add to this list and submit to:   donna_buck@pasd.wednet.edu Please title the subject "Problems for 5A" and include the answer.