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 1UNDERSTAND 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 2Get 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 3SOLVE 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!

Here are the steps once more:

Step 1 UNDERSTAND the problem.

Step 2 Get a PLAN.

Step 3 SOLVE it!

Step 4 LOOK BACK.