How skills and training connect to the money people earn, and how prices change when things are scarce or plentiful. Your child reads a pay table and solves pay and price stories.
Find the job's pay for one hour in the table, then multiply by the hours worked. To compare two jobs, find each total and subtract.
incomemoney earned from work
trainingtime spent learning a job's skills
scarceless of it than people want
plentifulmore of it than people want
Watch for: Giving the pay for one hour when the question asks about several hours. Reading across the wrong row of the table: keep a finger on the job's row. Thinking scarce things get cheaper: when there's too little, the price usually goes up.
At home: Talk about jobs family and friends do and the training each took. At the store, notice fruit that's cheap in season and pricier when it isn't.
Sample sheet and answer key
Luna's Space Adventure
Grade 3 · Work, pay and prices · 3.9A
NameDate
Astronaut Luna is exploring a far-off corner of space. Solve each problem to help Luna's mission go smoothly!
Skills and pay
Pay is for one hour of work. Use the table.
Job
Training
Pay
Cashier
none
$8
Painter
1 year
$12
Mechanic
2 years
$19
Engineer
4 years
$20
Which job pays the most per hour?
How much does a mechanic earn in 4 hours?
How much more does an engineer earn than a cashier in 1 hour?
Scarce or plentiful?
When something is scarce, its price goes up.
Tomatoes cost $6 a box. The farms grow only half as many tomatoes as last year. Which new price makes sense?$5$8
The market has 3 oranges and 18 people want some. Are they scarce or plentiful?ScarcePlentiful
The farms grow twice as many pumpkins as last year. Will the price of pumpkins go up or down?UpDown
Pay and prices
1
Nova has job training and earns $15 an hour. Zed has no training and earns $13 an hour. Each works 5 hours. How much more does Nova earn?
dollars
2
A box of moon rocks costs $6. Then moon rocks get plentiful, and the price goes down $1. How much do 7 boxes cost now?
dollars
Sheet
Luna's Space Adventure
Grade 3 · Work, pay and prices · 3.9A
Answer key
Astronaut Luna is exploring a far-off corner of space. Solve each problem to help Luna's mission go smoothly!
Skills and pay
Pay is for one hour of work. Use the table.
Job
Training
Pay
Cashier
none
$8
Painter
1 year
$12
Mechanic
2 years
$19
Engineer
4 years
$20
Which job pays the most per hour?Engineer
How much does a mechanic earn in 4 hours?$76
How much more does an engineer earn than a cashier in 1 hour?$12
Scarce or plentiful?
When something is scarce, its price goes up.
Tomatoes cost $6 a box. The farms grow only half as many tomatoes as last year. Which new price makes sense?$5$8
The market has 3 oranges and 18 people want some. Are they scarce or plentiful?ScarcePlentiful
The farms grow twice as many pumpkins as last year. Will the price of pumpkins go up or down?UpDown
Pay and prices
1
Nova has job training and earns $15 an hour. Zed has no training and earns $13 an hour. Each works 5 hours. How much more does Nova earn?
5 × 15 = 75, then 5 × 13 = 65, then 75 − 65 = 10
10dollars
2
A box of moon rocks costs $6. Then moon rocks get plentiful, and the price goes down $1. How much do 7 boxes cost now?
6 − 1 = 5, then 7 × 5 = 35
35dollars
Answer key
New problems every time, three levels (gentle, core and stretch), themes to pick from, a second page if you want one. Each sheet comes with an answer key and a one-page guide for grown-ups.
