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Problem Solving at St Joseph's

The Singapore Bar Model
 
The Singapore Bar Model is a mathematical representation of a word problem which we are encouraging all pupils at St Joseph's to use. It is a representation that reveals the structure of a word problem which helps pupils identify what operation is needed to solve the problem. The bar model is not a claculating tool.
 
We expect pupils to use this model from Year 1 through to Year 6. 
 
Mathematical understanding involves using representations
      • CONCRETE
      • PICTORIAL
      • ABSTRACT
By the time pupils get to Year 4, we would hope they have moved on to solely using the abstract version of using the bar model.
A Year 1 Problem
 
There are 5 apples and 6 oranges.How many pieces of fruit altogether?
 
 
 
Year 2 Problem
A Year 3 Problem
 
 
Miss Teague travelled 120 miles to get to her holiday cottage. She then travelled a further 42 miles to visit her friend. How far did she travel in total?
A Year 4 Problem
 
Leanne spends £8. Her friend Jenny spends five times more than her. How much does Jenny spend?
A Year 5 Problem
 
 
Adam has a pack of stickers. There are 124 stickers in a pack. If he shares them with his 3 friends - how many stickers will each friend get?
A Year 6 Problem
 
Shane had £72 that he had been saving for 8 weeks. If he saved the same amount of money each week, how much would he have saved after 21 days?