Thinking Outside “The Box” by Mary Cullinan

My grade one class was working on combinations of numbers that make twelve. Over and over we talked about six and six, ten and two, seven and five, etc. One day we were working on a word problem together. It went something like this:

“Johnny wants to send twelve cars to his friend Jane. He has two boxes. Each box will only hold ten cars. What can he do?” Up went the hands. “I know! He can put six cars in one box and six in the other!” I was happy. “Yes!” I smiled. What else could he do? Another hand. “He could put ten in one and two in another!” This was great! Another hand shot up . “He could put seven in one and five in another!” And so it went until we had exhausted the combinations of what numbers make twelve. How satisfying. I’d taught them well, they’d learned well. They knew all the combinations of numbers that could make twelve! It was two minutes to twelve - almost lunch. Jake’s hand went up. He didn’t often raise his hand and I was pretty sure there were no number combinations left. “Yes? What is it Jake?” I waited. He looked pleased with himself - even before he answered. “He could just get a BIGGER box.” “Yes,” I shrieked to the class, “He could just get a bigger box!” The class looked from me to Jake. We all smiled. Problem solved.