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Lesson : The Penny Thief
Grade Level: 1 – 3
Skills: number sense, addition, subtraction
A second grade class begins collecting pennies to use for a class trip, and each day they collect 4 pennies. Unfortunately, at night, a strange little man (see the number thief poem) comes into the classroom and steals 2 pennies from their piggy bank.
The students need to collect 12 pennies for their trip. Starting from zero pennies, how many days will it take them to get to 12 pennies if this continues?
Super Challenge: If the students collected 7 pennies a day, and the thief stole 3 of them at night, how many days would it take to get 44 pennies?