Students will learn how to write and solve one-step equations from word problems. Here's an interesting word problem, from Gardner's Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles: If a basketball weighs \(10 \frac{1}{2}\) ounces plus half its own weight, how much does it weigh? The equation required to solve this problem is
$$10\tfrac{1}{2} + x = x + x$$Watch these Khan Academy videos:
Do these Khan Academy exercises:
Next, give your students these challenges:
- 2018 Math Kangaroo Levels 5-6 Problem #21 by STEM4all
- Sorting Numbers by NRICH
Conclude by leading this investigation:
Divisibility Tricks
by MathPickle
6.EE.B.6: Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the purpose at hand, any number in a specified set.