SOLVING WORD

PROBLEMS


Word
Problems
scare me!

Word
Problems
make me
nervous!

Word
Problems?
I just skip
them!
DONT WORRY!
With just 4 easy
steps, you
can
become

a Word
Problem Whiz!
STEP 1
UNDERSTAND the problem.

What are you trying to figure
out?

Heres an example:


Yesterday, Alex saw 14 birds in his backyard. Today, he
saw 12. How many birds did he see in all?

In this problem, what are you trying to figure out?
IF YOU SAID:

How many birds did Alex see in
all? then

Youre right!
STEP 2
Get a PLAN.

How will you answer the
question?

Should you ADD or SUBTRACT?
LOOK FOR CLUES.

Here are some
CLUE WORDS
that will help
you decide
what to do.
ADDITION CLUE
WORDS
in all

altogether

sum

total
SUBTRACTION
CLUE WORDS

how many more

how many are left

difference
LETS LOOK AT THE
EXAMPLE AGAIN.

Yesterday, Alex saw 14 birds in his backyard. Today, he
saw 12. How many birds did he see in all?

Do you see any CLUE WORDS?
IF YOU SAID

in all, then

Youre right!

The words in all tell us that we should ADD!

Now that we UNDERSTAND the problem, and have a
PLAN, were ready for the next step!
STEP 3
SOLVE it!

Write a number sentence using
the information in the problem,
and



Work it
out!
GIVE IT A TRY!
Yesterday, Alex saw 14 birds in his backyard. Today, he
saw 12. How many birds did he see in all?

Write a number sentence and SOLVE it.
IF YOU WROTE

14 + 12 = 26 then

Youre right!
STEP 4

LOOK BACK.

Does your answer fit the question?

We had to find out how many birds Alex saw in all.

We added the number he saw yesterday and the
number he saw today.


Our answer was Alex saw 26 birds
in all.

It makes sense!

WE DID IT!

We are Word
Problem
Whizzes!
MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING
Clues For Multiplying

Product

Total

Area

Times


Clues for Dividing

Share

Distribute

Quotient

Average


HERE ARE THE STEPS
ONCE MORE:
Step 1 UNDERSTAND the
problem.

Step 2 Get a PLAN.

Step 3 SOLVE it!

Step 4 LOOK BACK.