I was never a top-notch math student. After missing the first day of long-division in fourth grade, I had anxiety at recess the next while begging my best friend Cindy to explain it to me in the playground sand.

I started catching up as a freshman in high school with a very good teacher who calmly walked us through solving for x on the board before before setting us free to practice problems. I started cozying up to integers, fractions, decimals, and basic equations until I moved to a new high school later that year and started over in a mismatched class after Christmas break. Now you understand why I took to creative writing.

What I didn't learn from any of my K-12 or even college math teachers, but discovered on my own, is where all the subtracted, reduced, and rounded numbers go.

Stay with me.

You know where carry the one goes. But what about those numbers your calculator calculated away or those you subtracted or reduced in your head? They have to go somewhere, right?

This is real thinking outside the box.

Now, I challenge you to invent your own number puns. For inspiration, print my activity page below. ⛯

Copyright ©2025 Chris Dunmire, funmire. All rights reserved.

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