817 Math Blog

Bruno went outside and everything looked the same except there was some kind of object. Bruno ran to the object. It was a treasure chest with a lock on it. There was a picture beside the treasure chest. it was a math question, an integer question. The question was (+11)+(-1). In order for Bruno to open the treasure chest, he must answer the question correctly because it will complete the code for the lock. Bruno used big rocks to represent positive numbers and smaller rocks to represent negative numbers. He got 11 big rocks and 1 small rock. Bruno realized that 1 negative and 1 positive makes 0. These are called zero pairs. There were only one zero pair, so he took away to zero pair and counted what was left. There were 10 big rocks left which meant the answer to the question is +10. Bruno turned the arrow to the numbers 11, 1, and 10 on the lock and it was right. There was instructions showing where the next treasure chest was.

Bruno followed the instructions and it took him to another treasure chest which was in a garden. Next to the treasure chest was another question. The question was (-16)+(+24). He used pink daisies to represent positive numbers and dandelions representing negative numbers. There was 16 zero pairs since there were more positives than negatives. The answer is +8. Bruno turned the arrow on the lock to 16, 24 and 8. Yet again, he got it right.

The new instructions instructed Bruno to go to a pond. When he got to the pond, he instantly saw the treasure chest. He looked at the question and the question was a little bit more difficult but he wasn't going to give up now. The question was (-7)+(+21)+(-18). Bruno realized that there were 2 negative numbers, so he added them together. This was called group like terms. The question was now (-25)+(+21). It was much more easier for Bruno. He used cattails to represent positive numbers and lily pads to represent negative numbers. There were 21 zero pairs so -4 was left. Bruno spunthe arrow to the numbers 25, 21 and 4.

TO BE CONTINUED.