Year 7 Maths
Term One 2023
Name: …………………………………………..
Class: ………….
Teacher: ……………………………
PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES
• Guess & Check
Example Solution
Mr K Nine has two dogs named Barnum
and Bailey. He has 25 dog biscuits to split Barnum Bailey TOTAL Check
between the two dogs so that Barnum will 16 5 21 x
get exactly 11 more than Bailey. 20 9 29 x
How many biscuits does each dog get? 18 7 25
Have a Go!
1. Mazie Muddler has the following diagram and has to put five different numbers (no larger
than 8) in each oval so that the sums of both diagonals are 15.
Practice diagrams
2. April, Peter and Marsha all joined the Annual Easter Egg Hunt at the local park. When the
hunt was over, the three friends sat down together and counted their eggs.
April and Peter had a combined total of 25 eggs.
Peter and Marsha had a combined total of 23 eggs.
April and Marsha had a combined total of 24 eggs.
How many eggs did each child find?
• Use or Make a Table
Example Solution
Jill and Bill are two members of the Hill
family. Jill is 8 years old and Bill is 9 Jill Bill TOTAL of DIGITS
years old. Now 8 9 8 + 9 = 17
What will Bill’s age be when the total of 9 10 9 + 1 + 0 = 10
10 11 1+0+1+1+=3
the digits in both their ages is once again 11 12 1+1+1+2=5
17? 12 13 7
13 14 9
14 15 11
15 16 13
16 17 15
17 18 17
When Bill is 18 years old
Have a Go!
1. Artie and Tom both shop at the same green grocer between five and six in the evening.
The last time they saw each other was on Tuesday. Artie shops every five days and Tom
shops every four days. What day of the week will they next run into each other at the shop,
assuming that the shop is open seven days a week?
2. Barbara adds 1 link to her paper chain every day. Bill adds 3 links to his chain every day.
Barbara’s chain has 9 links right now, and Bill’s chain has 3 links right now. If they keep
adding links at the same rate, how many days before Bill’s chain has exactly twice as
many links as Barbara’s chain?
• Make an Organised List
Example Solution
List all the three-digit numbers that can
be made using the numerals 4, 6 and 8 468 648 846
only once in each number.
486 684 864
Have a Go!
1. List all the four-digit numbers that can be made using the numerals 2, 4, 6 and 8 only once
in each number.
2. Bob is practicing darts and decides to work out how many different scores are possible if
he uses exactly four darts, and if all darts hit a numbered area.
How many different scores are possible? What are these scores?
10
25
50
• Look for a Pattern
Example Solution
Shelly is researching sea shells and has
discovered that the structure of a nautilus Adding two previous terms/numbers to get the next
shell duplicates a numerical pattern number.
discovered by the mathematician
Fibonacci. The progression is: e.g. 1 + 1 = 2
1+2=3
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, …….. 2+3=5
3+5=8
What two numbers should come next in
this series? Therefore, 8 + 13 = 21
13 + 21 = 34
Have a Go!
1. Pat decided to stump Wilma with the following sequences of names. Determine the pattern
and supply a name on each line that will continue the pattern.
A. Al Ben Carl ………………………….
B. Jan Kate Libby ………………………….
C. Matilda Lionel Karen ………………………….
2. The ladybird convention met in Tiger Lily’s garden. On the first day there were 7 ladybirds.
On the second day there were 15 ladybirds, and then 24 on the third day.
At this rate, how many ladybirds will there by on the 8th day?
• Act it Out
Example Solution
Terry had 12 toothpicks and six beans that he had
arranged, as below.
His mother told him to pretend that the beans were
sheep and that the toothpicks were sections of
fence. Then she challenged him to find a way to give
each sheep its own enclosed pen so that all the pens
were of equal size, using all 12 toothpicks.
Draw a diagram to show how Terry should arrange
the toothpicks.
Have a Go!
1. May showed her cousin Meg nine cups with numbers on them that had been placed in
such a way that there were three cups in each of the three stacks.
May wanted Meg to move only one of the cups so that the sum of the cups in each stack
would be equal.
Which cup should be moved and to what stack? What will be the total of each stack?
2 5 8
3 6 9
4 7 10
2. A fireman stood on the middle rung of a ladder. The smoke cleared, so he stepped up five
rungs, but a sudden flare-up forced him to go down seven rungs. Later he climbed 11
rungs where he worked until the fire was out. He then climbed the remaining six rungs to
the top of the ladder. How many rungs did the ladder have?
• Use Logic
Example Solution
Willy, Milly, Billy and Lilly each decided to Step One
order a different kind of pancake at the Willy Milly Billy Lilly
restaurant. The four choices were apple, Apple x x x
chocolate chip, blueberry and spice. Using the [Link] x
following clues, who ordered which Blueb’y x x
pancakes? Spice
1. Willy hates apple Step Two
2. Milly is allergic to chocolate Willy Milly Billy Lilly
3. the girls didn’t order anything with fruit Apple x x x
[Link] x x x
Blueb’y x x x
Spice x x x
Milly – Spice Willy – Blueb’y
Lilly – [Link] Billy – Apple
Have a Go!
1. Stuart has six books all in a row on his bookshelf for his classes in maths, science, history,
spelling, art and reading.
Read the following clues and label the books correctly.
1. The maths book is to the left of the
science and history books
2. The science and spelling books are on
the two ends.
3. The art and the history books occupy
the two centre positions
4. The reading book is in between the
history and science books
2. Bob has a favourite number. Use the following clues to work out what his favourite number
is.
1. the number is greater than 8 6
2. the number is odd
3. the number is less than 9 8
4. one of the factors of the number is 3
5. 5 is not one of the digits
6. the numeral in the ten’s place is smaller than the
numeral in the one’s place
• Simplify or Work Backwards
Example Solution
Charlene glued 12 sugar cubes together into along
strip for a science project. After the glue dried, she Ends (there are 2 with 5 sides) = 10
painted the entire strip green. How many sides of the
sugar cubes were painted altogether? Middle has 10 cubes with 4 sides = 40
TOTAL SIDES PAINTED = 50
Have a Go!
1. It was snack time for Mel and Mike at the local bakery store. They were trying to decide
what kinds of biscuits they wanted. In the counter there were 6 more choc mint than vanilla
icing biscuits, but the sum of the mint and icing was equal to the total of peanut butter
biscuits. They saw exactly twice as many peanut butter biscuits as oatmeal biscuits. There
were one third as many peanut butter as choc chip and their mouths were watering looking
at the 36 choc chip biscuits. How many biscuits were there in the shop?
2. A teacher entered the Preschool at 8am on Monday morning to find a flu epidemic at the
school. By 8:30am half the children were sent home sick. By 9:30am half of the remaining
children were sent home. By 10:30am half of the remaining children were sent home. By
11:30am half of the remaining children were sent home. By this time it was lunch and there
were only two children left. How many children were at the preschool at the beginning of
the day?
• Make a Diagram or Drawing
Example Solution
Sue docks her motorboat at Pier One. Six boats use
this pier, three tied to each side. Each boat on the
pier is a different colour. Sue’s boat is white and is
directly across the pier from the green boat. The
green boat is between the silver and blue boats. The
green
silver
blue
yellow boat is west of Sue’s boat and the silver boat
is exactly north of the red boat.
Where is each boat tied up?
NORTH
yellow
white
red
WEST
SOUTH
Have a Go!
1. Alex and Brooke were getting directions from Don on how to get from the State of
Confusion to the State of Bliss. Don told them to proceed four kilometres straight north,
walk three kilometres straight east, do exactly two kilometres further north, turn to the west
and continue for six kilometres, go south only one kilometre and then east one more
kilometre. He told them to conclude the journey by going five kilometres north.
Make a map for Alex and Brooke to the State of Bliss using Don’s directions.
2. In the kingdom of Ancient Times, the telephone hookups do not go through a central
location. Instead any hut that wants to be connected to any other hut must have a direct
line to that hut. If there are 5 huts, each wanting to be directly connected with all of the
other 4 huts, how many lines are needed altogether?
If five more huts are added to the kingdom, how many telephone lines will be required?