The purpose of this activity is for students to consider a situation and think about all the mathematical questions they could ask about it. This process gives students a chance to make sense of the situation before they are asked to solve problems. Students might choose to write a multiplication equation like . Acknowledge that this equation represents this situation, but focus the discussion in the Activity Synthesis on division to connect to the work in the next section.

• “¿Qué información del problema usamos?” // "What information did we use in the problem? (the number of guests at the party, the number of guests in Room A, the number of tables in Room B, the fact that the same number of guests sit at each table)
• “¿Cómo podemos escribir una ecuación que represente el problema y que tenga una letra para representar la cantidad desconocida? Expliquen su razonamiento” // “How could we record an equation with a letter for the unknown quantity that would represent the problem? Explain your reasoning.” ( . We had to find  to find out how many people are in Room B. We had to divide the number of people in Room B by 6 to find out how many guests are at each table. The g represents how many guests fit at each table in Room B.)
• Display:
• If students don’t use parentheses, say: “En esta ecuación, podemos usar paréntesis para mostrar que restamos primero” // “In this equation, we can use parentheses to show that we subtracted first.”
• “Los paréntesis nos muestran que la resta se hace primero en la ecuación que representa el problema. Tengan esto en mente cuando trabajen en la siguiente actividad” // “The parentheses show us that the subtraction is done first in the equation to represent the problem. Keep this in mind as you work on the next activity.”

The purpose of this activity is for students to solve two-step word problems using all four operations. Students can solve the problem first or write the equation first, depending on their preference. Encourage students to use parentheses if needed to show what is being done first in their equations.

When students make sense of situations to solve two-step problems they reason abstractly and quantitatively (MP2).

• For each problem, invite a student to share their equation and discuss how it represents the problem.
• Consider asking:
  • “¿En qué parte de la ecuación vemos ______ del problema?” // “Where do we see ______ from the problem in the equation?”
  • “¿Qué información de la situación necesitamos para resolver el problema y escribir nuestra ecuación?” // “What information from the situation did we need to solve the problem and write our equation?”
  • “¿Cómo se usan los paréntesis en la ecuación?” // “How are parentheses used in the equation?”