Winter Holiday Math & Reading — Answer Key
Part A: Fill in the Blank
Write the missing word or number on each line.
1. A holiday punch recipe uses 3 cups of juice for every 1 cup of soda. For 20 cups total, you need 15 cups of juice.
The recipe uses 3 parts juice for every 1 part soda, making 4 parts total in each batch. With 20 cups total, each part equals 20 ÷ 4 = 5 cups, so juice takes 3 × 5 = 15 cups.
2. Out of 40 party guests, 38 chose hot cocoa. That means 15 guests chose hot cocoa.
Finding 38 of 40 means multiplying: 40 × 38 = 1208 = 15. Splitting 40 guests into 8 equal groups of 5, then taking 3 of those groups, gives 15 guests.
3. A class voted on winter activities: 12 chose sledding, 8 chose skating, and 10 chose snowball fights. The mean of these three numbers is 10.
Mean is the average — add the values and divide by how many there are: (12 + 8 + 10) ÷ 3 = 30 ÷ 3 = 10. The mean balances the three vote totals into one typical value.
4. If 5 friends share 3 pizzas equally, each person gets 35 of a pizza.
Sharing 3 pizzas equally among 5 friends gives each person 3 ÷ 5 = 35 of a pizza. The numerator shows how many pizzas are shared and the denominator shows how many people share them.
5. A bag has 6 red ornaments and 4 gold ornaments. The ratio of red to gold is 6 to 4, which simplifies to 3 to 2.
Both 6 and 4 share a common factor of 2, so dividing each by 2 simplifies the ratio: 6 ÷ 2 = 3 and 4 ÷ 2 = 2, giving 3 to 2. Simplifying a ratio works the same way as reducing a fraction.
6. A chart shows snowfall totals of 4, 7, 3, and 6 inches over four days. The total snowfall is 20 inches.
Adding all four daily amounts gives the total: 4 + 7 + 3 + 6 = 20 inches. The total combines every day's snowfall into one cumulative figure.
7. If 60% of 50 students brought holiday cards, then 30 students brought cards.
Sixty percent means 60 out of every 100, so 60% of 50 is 0.60 × 50 = 30. You can also think of it as half of 50 plus 10% more, which is 25 + 5 = 30.
8. A comparison of two quantities using division is called a ratio.
A ratio compares two quantities using division — for example, 6 to 4 or 64. Comparing by division lets you describe how much of one thing there is for every unit of another.
9. The number that appears most often in a data set is called the mode.
Mode is the value that shows up most often in a data set. While mean is the average and median is the middle, mode focuses on frequency — which number repeats the most.
Part B: Matching
Match each item on the left to the correct answer on the right.
1. Match each item to its correct answer.
The average of a data set
→ Mean
Mode
The middle value when data is ordered
→ Median
Range
The difference between the highest and lowest values
→ Range
Median
The value that appears most often
→ Mode
Mean
Mean is the average found by adding values and dividing by how many there are. Median is the middle value once data is put in order, range is the highest minus the lowest, and mode is the value that appears most often.