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    Madison rolls over in bed and looks at her clock. It’s 

9:00am on Saturday January 3rd. As she lays there a while 

trying to think of why she felt like there was something 

important to do that day she remembered and immediately 

jumped out of bed! “It is January 3rd, meaning it’s my 

best friend’s birthday!” She had forgotten all about her 

friend Courtney’s birthday including the huge surprise 

party that she told everyone she was planning. Madison, 

realizing that she had not bought a single thing for the 

party, raced down the stairs, grabbed a notepad and pen 

and began to brainstorm a list of items needed for the 

party. 

    The first thing Madison could think of was the food. What 

type of food should there be at a birthday party. “I guess we 

will need cake, cupcakes, ice cream, and chips for snacking. I 

am going to need to figure out how much of each item I will 

need for the amount of people I invited. I think that will be 

enough food!” Next she thought of what she would need to 

eat the food. “Well of course we will need plates, napkins, 

forks, spoons, and cups.” That reminded her she would also 

need to get at least 3 of Courtney’s favorite drinks. As the list 

continued to grow Madison realized that there was a lot more 

to a surprise party than she thought. She looked at the clock, 

it was 11:00am, she had 4 hours until the party started to go 

to the store, figure out how much of everything she needed, 

buy it, and get back in time to set up before the guests 

arrived. 

    As Madison arrived at Walmart she got out of her car and quickly made 

her way into the store. Trying to hold in her anxiousness she smiled and 

waved at all the greeters waiting at the door until finally she was in a ready 

to shop. “Okay since I am on the home décor section, I think I’m going to 

try and find the party supplies first.” Madison said to herself. Looking 

around she finally saw an aisle that had streamers, balloons, wrapping 

paper, and all the essentials for decorating. “Okay so I want to be able to 

give everyone a balloon to blow up so when they jump out and surprise her 

they can throw their balloons everywhere!” Madison looked through the 

packages and found one that said it contained 130 individual balloons. “So if 

I invited 26 people and there are 130 balloons in each package how many 

balloons would each person get?” Madison was not very good at performing 

long division in her head, so instead she thought of the numbers as a 

fraction. “If I have 130/26 and I know that both 130 and 26 have factors of 

1,2, and 13 then taking both the top and bottom by 13 since it is the 

greatest common factor I would reduce my fraction to 10/2 which equals 5! 

Yay each person would get 5 balloons to throw!” Grabbing the package of 

130 balloons, and a couple other decorations, Madison decided it was time 

to move to a new aisle and search for some utensils for the food.

     Knowing that she needed forks, 

spoons, and cups the challenge began to 

find the right amount for the party and 

extra left over for family gatherings and 

whenever friends come over. Madison 

found a box of utensils which included 100 

forks and 100 spoons. She knew that the 

next week her family was having a party 

and that they would only need 20 of each 

utensil. “So if I take double the amount I 

need for the birthday party then I would 

need about 60 forks and 60 spoons. 100-

60=40 leaving 40 utensils to use for the 

family party next week.” Madison realized 

that she was able to find how many 

utensils each person would be able to use 

if needed for both parties the same way 

she figured out how many balloons each 

person could throw.

 “If I find the greatest factor for each of these combination of numbers I will easily 

be able to figure out how many each of my friends and family can use!” Madison 

organizes her thoughts quickly, and then remembers, “There will potentially be 30 

people at the party with 60 utensils of each kind, or 60/30. The factors of 60 and 30 

are 1,2,3,5,6,10, and 15. Taking 15 from 60/30 the fraction would become 4/2 which 

equals 2. Each person will be able to have 2 of each utensil, which works out great in 

case someone throws their first one away!” “The same would go for the family party 

which would be 40 utensils left over for 20 people taking the greatest common factor 

of 10 from each of number making 2 utensils for each family member as well.” As 

Madison worked through the math in her head she finally realized that all these years 

learning about greatest common factor were beginning to pay off. “I never realized 

how often you would need to find the greatest common factor in a real world 

situation!” Madison checked her watch and decided she had enough time to take 

some time to herself for personal shopping and browsing. 

    After taking a couple detours through the clothing section, 

the electronics section, the gardening section, and even the 

toys isle, she finally made it over to the bakery area. “Wow, 

look at the time, it’s already 1:30pm! How did time go by so 

fast?” As she was thinking to herself she turned and saw the 

most perfect cake for Courtney. It was two layers which 

would be just enough for everyone that was coming. As soon 

as Madison started walking over to grab the cake a small 

older women swooped in picked it up with smile on her face 

said, “My granddaughter is going to love this! I can’t wait to 

surprise her!” “Great!” Madison thought, “I was so close. Now 

what am I going to do? I don’t have a cake, and I don’t have 

time to order a new one. Well at least the old lady was able 

to find a great cake for her granddaughter. I’m sure she will 

love it!"

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