4th grade math word problem

Question

A teacher has 40 pens and 56 pencils she wants to distribute them to her class of 12 so that each child will get the same number of pens and pencils

Answer 1

First, how fortunate that the teacher only has 12 students!

12 does not go evenly into 40 or 56. Recall:

12 x 3 = 36

12 x 4 = 48

12 x 5 = 60

However, if you add 40+56 you get 96 writing utensils altogether. Fortunately, 96 is divisible by 12:

12 x 8 = 96

So, each of the 12 students will get 8 writing utensils. Some will get 3 pens and 5 pencils; and others will get 4 of each (bonus points for figuring out how many!).