How old is the Shepherd? Gaining Number Sense!

I attended my first math conference last weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria and was blown away! There was so much excellent information about helping students gaining number sense with using manipulatives, drawing models, and gaining number sense through concrete exploration and being able to "see" the numbers. I have returned to BFA excited, overwhelmed, and energized to implement quite a few changes. My students will be working with manipulatives much more and drawing models of what they are building. 

To help understand the value of gaining number sense, our instructor shared a short video of a group of students being asked to solve a story problem.  Here is the YouTube link below for you to watch:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kibaFBgaPx4

I also shared this problem with my students yesterday and received several different and very creative answers! I am sharing a small sampling of their answers below. Read all the way through for some rather interesting and creative replies!

Dogs can't be in a flock. The sheep outlived the shepherd. The dogs are the shepherds now. 

125/5 = 25

Does the 125 sheep and 5 dogs impact how old the shepherd is?

There is no shepherd. Is this a trick question or a math question?

21

It doesn't say anything about the shepherd!

120

The story does not tell us anything about the shepherd

5 dogs killed all the sheep in Minecraft.

died

Who cares how old the shepherd is.

If the farmer got 25 sheep a year and one dog every year and he started doing this when he was 12 then he is 17 years old.

There is not enough information to tell. 

130 years old

12

5 + 125 = age of shepherd: NO WAY!

Me confused. Is this a psychological question?

125/5 = 25

I think that he is 72 years old.

around 80

15

The shepherd is 50 years old.

almost 2 days old

The shepherd is 31 years old.

He is 130 years old.

I think that this problem is weird and unsolvable.

63

We can't tell because we don't have any information about the shepherd.

The shepherd is probably in his fourties or fifties. Because that's the age of a typical shepherd.

The shepherd is probably around 60 years old. 

50

The shepherd is 13. 

Old, because he has to have 5 dogs to help him. 

Can you know how old the shepherd is?

115 years old? or 60 or 70?

There is no shepherd mentioned, so I am led to believe that his age, since he is nonexistent, is zero. I am curious as to whether or not there is a logical answer to it. I am also not sure if when there are dogs included whether it is a flock or not. I am aware that there is probably some trick to answer this, but I don't know it. Unless of course the question is referring to God, who is the shepherd seeing that it is capitalized, I now think that the answer is infinity. 

Some of my students have a good number sense and others could use some concrete visualization. It will be a challenge to form lessons that will fill in wholes yet challenge others. I have found several resources to help guide my classes. Having excellent support from my principal and vice-principal is very encouraging as well. I am looking forward to learning much as I experience teaching on a whole new playing field!