Question P4–P5–P6 Suppose and swap
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A zookeeper has 44 baskets of fruit for a troop of 58 monkeys, made up of adult monkeys and baby monkeys. Each adult monkey eats 2 baskets of fruit, and every 5 baby monkeys share 1 basket. How many adult monkeys and how many baby monkeys are there?
Answer
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Suppose everything is one kind, then swap one at a time until the total is right.
In this one. Count in fifths of a basket so nothing is a fraction, then guess "all babies" and swap babies for adults — each swap adds the same 9 fifths, so one division finds how many swaps were needed.
Two kinds of thing are mixed together with a known total count and a known total of something else, such as legs or sweets, and neither kind's count is given on its own.
Children lose track of whether a swap adds to the total or takes away from it. Compare the starting total with the target first, then swap in the direction that closes the gap.
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