Solving non-routine word problems

using BLOCK METHOD APPROACH

(BMA)
OLIVER P. BALTAZAR
Teacher I (Taytay National High School)
Mission 1
You need to help a villager get a fox, a
duck, and a bag of seaweed safely across
a river in a boat. The villager may only
take one thing at a time in the boat. She
cannot leave the fox and the duck
together on either side of the river, or the
fox will eat the duck.
Likewise, she cannot leave the
duck alone with the bag of
seaweed or the duck will eat the
seaweed. How can the villager
get everything across the river
without anything being eaten?
First Solution: Draw a diagram
Step 1: understanding the problem
Across the river in a boat
One thing at a time
Cannot leave them unattended (fox will eat duck
or duck will eat seaweed)
Way to carry everything across the river safely
Step 2: Devise a plan
-Draw a diagram
 
Step 3: Carry out the plan

Duck Fox Seaweed

Step 4: Check the Answer
1st: the villager will take the duck across the river
2nd: the villager will take the fox and bring back
the duck
3rd: the villager will take the seaweed
4th: the villager will finally take the duck across
the river again.
Many elementary school math
problems fit into one of the
following categories:
One-Step Routine Translation Problem
This can be solved with a single arithmetic
operation. It illustrates common applications of
arithmetic and helps reinforce arithmetic skills.

Example: There are 6 pencils in the drawer.

Evelyn places 9 more pencils in the drawer. How
many pencils are now there in total?
Multi-Step Routine Translation Problem
This can be solved with two or more arithmetic
steps. It illustrates common applications of arithmetic
and reinforces arithmetic skills, but they require
higher-level thinking than one-step problems.

Example: Janet bought 4 packets of balloon. There

were 5 balloons in each packet. She used two packets.
How many balloons did she have left?
Non-Routine Problems
This is often solved with some unusual approach or
insight. Non-routine problems develop flexible
thinking.

Example: Jaden had 17 coins. 7 of them were 1peso

coins, 2 of them were 5peso coins and the rest
were 10peso coins. How much money did Jaden
have?
ROUTINE PROBLEM VS NON- ROUTINE PROBLEM
Real Life Problem Complex Problem
Involve one mathematical Require more than one
operation mathematical operation
Basic Skills and sequence steps Using critical and creative thinking
skills
Solving through story telling and Various strategies and methods to
relate it to real life situation solve it
In general, problems can be categorized as
routine or non-routine. Routine problems require
direct applications of sets of known or
prescribed procedures to solve problems. On
the other hand, non-routine problems are more
abstract or subjective and require a strategy.
solve.
A box contains 3 red rubber
bands and 6 yellow rubber
bands. How many rubber
bands are there in 5 such
boxes?
Step 1:Draw a model
 ?

3 6 3 6 3 6 3 6 3 6
Step 2: Use mental calculation to find the
number of red and yellow rubber bands in a box.

6+3=9
Step 3: Use “multiplying without
regrouping” method to find the
number of rubber bands in 5 such
boxes.
5 x 9 = 45

There are 45 rubber bands in such boxes.

James bought 3 packets of balloons. There were 8
balloons in each packet. If he used 16 balloons, how
many balloons did he left?

Step 1:Draw a model

Balloons Balloons Balloons

8 8 8

Used Left

16 ?
Step 2: Use “multiplying without regrouping” method to
find the total number of balloons that James had bought.

3 x 8 = 24
Step 3: Use “subtracting by
regrouping” method to find the
number of balloons he had left

24 – 16 = 8
He had 8 balloons left.
Jaden shared 24 yema candy equally with 2 friends.
She then put her share equally into two boxes. How
many yema candy did she have in each box?

Step 1:Draw a model

 24

JADEN FRIEND FRIEND

BOX BOX

? ?
Step 2: Use “dividing without regrouping” method to
find the number of yemas Jaden had after sharing with 2
friends.

3 x 8 = 24

24 ÷ 3 = 8
Step 3: Use “dividing without
regrouping” method to find the
number of yema in each box he
had left2 x 4 = 8
8÷2=4
She had 4 yema in each box.
Rosa sewed 4 buttons on a dress. After sewing
8 dresses, she had 12 buttons left. How many
buttons did she have at first?

Step 1:Draw a model

 ?

Dress Dress Dress Dress Dress Dress Dress Dress Buttons

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 12
Step 2: Use “multiplying
without regrouping” method to
find the number of buttons
used for 8 dresses.

8 x 4 = 32
Step 3: Use ‘adding without
regrouping’ method to find the
total number of buttons she
had at first.

32 + 12 = 44
MTAP PROBLEMS
Three-fourths of the books in the
library are English books and the
rest are Chinese books. There are
2849 more English books than
Chinese books. What is the total
number of books in the library?
 2849

English Chinese

Ans. 5 698 books

Rosanna sold ¼ of her eggs on
Saturday and 1/6 of of the
remainder on Sunday. If she had
140 eggs left, how many eggs did
she have at first?
 Sunday
Saturday

₱140

Ans. ₱ 224
On Monday, Farmer Tom collected three times as many
eggs as Farmer Jack. On Tuesday, Farmer Tom sold 160
eggs. Farmer Jack then had twice as many eggs as Farmer
Tom. How many eggs did Farmer Jack have?

Step 1: Draw a model

Monday
Farmer Tom
Farmer Jack
160
Tuesday
Farmer Tom
Farmer Jack

?
Step 2: Use ‘dividing with regrouping’ method to
find the number of eggs Farmer Tom had left

160 ÷ 5 = 32
Step 3: Use ‘multiplying with regrouping’ method to
find the number of eggs Farmer Jack had

2 x 32 = 64
Farmer Jack had 64 eggs.
Rose had 1/3 as much money as Dwayne. Rachel had
₱ 20 more than Dwayne. They had ₱ 132 altogether.
How much did each of them have?

Step 1: Draw a model

 ?

Rose ?

Dwayne ?
₱132

Rachel ₱20
Step 2: Use ‘subtracting without regrouping’ and
‘dividing without regrouping’ methods to find the
amount of money Rose had

₱132 - ₱20 = ₱112

₱112 ÷ 7 = ₱ 16
Step 3: Use ‘multiplying with regrouping’ method to
find the amount of money Dwayne had

3 x ₱16 = ₱48
Step 4: Use ‘adding without regrouping’ method to
find the amount of money Rachel had

₱48 + ₱20 = ₱68

Rose had ₱16
Dwayne had ₱48
Rachel had ₱68
2/7 0f the toy cars in a box are silver. 1/10 of the
remainder are yellow and the rest are black. If there
are 28 silver toy cars, how many black toy cars are
there in the box?

Step 1: Draw a model

28 ?
Step 2: Use ‘dividing without regrouping’ and
‘multiplying without regrouping’ methods to find
the number of black toy cars in the box

28 ÷ 4 = 7
9 x 7 = 63
There are 63 black toy cars in the box.
There were some mangoes and apples in a box. If 4
mangoes were taken out from the box, there would
be an equal number of mangoes and apples in the
box. If 7 mangoes were taken out from the box, there
would be 4/5 as many mangoes as apples in the box.
A. How many apples were there in the box at first?
B. How many mangoes were there in the box at first?
 4
Mangoes
Apples
?

Mangoes 7

Apples

?
Step 2: Use ‘subtracting without regrouping’ and
multiplying without regrouping’ methods to find
the number of apples and mangoes in the box at
first
7–4=3
5 x 3 = 15
There were 15 apples in the box at first.
Step 3: Use ‘multiplying without regrouping’ and
adding without regrouping’ methods to find the
number of mangoes in the box at first

4 x 3 = 12
12 + 7 = 19
There were 19 mangoes in the box at first.
Easy Problems
A buko Pie cost ₱50. Dwayne bought 3
Buko Pies and gave the cashier ₱200.
How much change did he get?

ANSWER: ₱50
Mr Amolin bought some flour. He used 3 kg
and packed the rest equally into 4 bags of 2
kg each. How much flour did he have at
first?

Ans. 11 kg
James bought a toy that cost ₱600 and
received 2 two-hundred bills in change.
How much did he give to the cashier?

Ans. ₱1000
Gian tied 4 bunches of 3 balloons
each. Krizzie tied 8 bunches of 2
balloons each. How many more
balloons did krizzie tie than Gian?

Ans. 4 more balloons than Gian

Average Problems
Mr Rafol sold 320 mangoes on Monday and
456 mangoes on Tuesday. He packed the
rest of his mangoes equally into 10 punnets
of 8 mangoes each. How many mangoes did
he have at first?

Ans. 856 mangoes

Jaden arranged 4 white chairs and
3 black chairs in a row. If she
arranged 10 such rows, how many
chairs were there altogether.

Ans. 70 chairs
Mrs. Abelende bought some sweets for
his pupils. He gave 9 students 3 sweets
each and had 4 sweets left. How many
sweets did he buy?

Ans. 31 sweets
There are 8 apples in bag A. There
were twice as many apples in bag B as
in bag A. How many apples were there
altogether?

Ans. 24 apples
Difficult or Challenging
A fruiterer sold dragon fruits in bags of 3. For
every 4 bags of dragon fruits bought, a
customer would get 1 dragon fruit free. If Mr
Sumio bought 12 bags of dragon fruits, how
many dragon fruits did he have altogether?

Ans. 39 dragon fruits

Joseph had 5 boxes of marbles. There
were 10 marbles in each box. Ernest had
28 marbles more than Joseph. How many
marbles did they have altogether?

Ans. 128 marbles altogether

A pen cost ₱8. It cost ₱2 pesos more
than a pencil. Mitchie had ₱30. She
bought 2 pens and 2 pencils. How
much had he left.

Ans. ₱2
Ramon had 6 ₱20 bills, 3 ₱50 bills
and 1 ₱5 coin. He spent ₱240 on a
book and ₱25 on a magazine. How
much did he have left?

Ans. ₱10
“You can do what I cannot
do. I can do what you
cannot do. Together we can
do great things.”