©Montessori for Everyone 2005 Beginning Word Problems—Addition
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Peter had 6 balls and then he Dave had 5 apples and Sally
found 3 more. How many balls had 4 apples. How many
did he have in all? apples did they have
altogether?
Jason has 7 toy cars and his
Dominique ate 4 carrots
brother has 8 toy cars. What is
and her mother at 2 carrots.
the total number of cars that
How many carrots did
Jason and his brother have?
they eat in all?
Molly bought 3 candies. Her Samuel found 5 pencils. Then
friend Sarah bought 4 candies. he found 2 more. How many
How many candies did Molly pencils did he find in all?
and Sarah buy?
Mahoor checked out 4 books
Anna polished 7 spoons. Her from the library. His sister
friend Kumiko polished 3 more. checked 4 more books out
How many spoons did Anna of the library. How many books
and Kumiko polish? were checked out altogether?
Bill made a kite with 8 tails. Ashley collected 3 stones at the
Then he added 1 more tail. beach. Her father found 3 shells
How many tails did his kite at the beach. How many things
have in all? did Ashley and her father find at
the beach?
©Montessori for Everyone 2005 Beginning Word Problems—Subtraction
[Link]
Cassie painted 9 pictures on
Monday and 4 pictures on Dennis scored 7 points during the
Tuesday. How many more basketball game. Claire scored
pictures did she paint on 5. What is the difference in the
Monday than on Tuesday? points each of them earned?
The school band has 5 tubas Sean wants to read 7 books this
and 3 trombones. How many summer. He has already read 4.
more tubas does the How many more books does he
band have? have to read to meet his goal?
The first bird gathered 8 sticks There were 6 black ants walking
for its nest. The second bird on the sidewalk. There were 3
gathered 6. What is the differ- brown ants walking on the
ence between the number of sidewalk. How many more
sticks gathered by each bird? black ants were there?
The teacher had 7 lessons to
There are 5 spiders on the present. She presented 5 of
porch. If two spiders leave, them. How many more lessons
how many spiders will be left? did the teacher have
to present?
Tracy wanted to eat 4
Ms. Murphy’s garden had 9 cupcakes at her birthday
roses. Her neighbor’s garden party. She had already
had 6 roses. How many more eaten 2. How many more
roses did Ms. Murphy have? cupcakes did Tracy
need to eat?
©Montessori for Everyone 2005 Beginning Word Problems—Multiplication
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Amanda wanted to decorate Michael gave his sister 4
each cupcake with 7 sprinkles. books to read. Each book has
She has 9 cupcakes. How many 4 chapters. How many
sprinkles will she need? chapters must his sister read?
Ted’s mom is going to make 5
Roger picked 7 apples from peanut butter and jelly sand-
the tree. Each apple has 6 wiches. Each sandwich needs 2
seeds. How many seeds pieces of bread. How many
are there in all? pieces of bread does Ted’s
mom need?
Daniel has 3 cases to hold his There were 5 rows of bikes by
toy trucks. Each case holds 6 the library. Each row had 5
trucks. How many trucks can bikes. How many bikes were
Daniel store in his cases? there altogether?
Nadia’s classroom has 7 book- Emily watched 1 hour of televi-
cases. Each bookcase has 4 sion every day. After 5 days,
shelves. How many shelves are how many hours of television
in Nadia’s classroom? had she watched?
There were 9 swimmers waiting There were 8 skaters in the race.
to race. Each swimmer brought Each skater had 2 knee pads.
3 friends to watch the race. How many knee pads were
How many friends were at there total?
the race?
©Montessori for Everyone 2005 Beginning Word Problems—Division
[Link]
There were 42 coins in the There were 7 babies playing
treasure chest. If there were 6 and each one wanted some
pirates, and each pirate got blocks. If there were 42 blocks
the same amount of gold coins, total and the moms gave each
how many gold coins did baby the same amount of
each pirate get? blocks, how many blocks did
each baby get?
There were 15 eggs in the All of the 7 plants in the garden
henhouse. Each hen laid the had the same number of bugs
same number of eggs. If there on them. If there were 21
are 5 hens, how many eggs did plants, how many bugs did
each of them lay? each plant have?
In gym class, the teacher
divided the class into 6 teams There were 49 leaves on the
with the same amount of ground. If 7 students each
children in each team. If there picked up the same number of
are 36 children in the class, leaves, how many leaves did
how many children were each of them get?
in each team?
Some girls went to the store to Jane’s cats ate 18 cat treats. If
buy new DVDs. Altogether, they each cat ate the same amount
bought 12 DVDs. If there were of cat treats, and there are 6
4 girls, how many DVDs did cats, how many cat treats did
each girl buy? each cat eat?
All 8 children at a birthday The teacher gave out 30 coins
party received the same from foreign countries to 5
number of party favors. If of her students. How many coins
there were 40 favors in all, how did each student receive?
many did each receive?
©Montessori for Everyone 2005 Beginning Word Problems—Instructions
[Link]
Math word or story problems can be difficult for children. Even when a child has mastered his/
her math facts, putting them into a story format requires a different kind of analytical ability.
Prepare the children for simple word problems by talking about the important key words in the
word problem. These words indicate which operation (+, -, x, ÷) is needed to solve the problem.
Addition Keywords include: Subtraction Keywords Include:
how many subtract
how many in all how many left
how many altogether take away
add difference
plus
in total
and
Multiplication Keywords include:
multiply Note: Many addition, multiplication, and
times division keywords are similar.
how many
how many in all
how many all together The children will have to look for clues,
each like the word “each” which indicates
multiplication or division when combined
with “in all” or “altogether”.
Division Keywords include:
divide
divided by
each
how many
Tell the children to ask themselves, “What information is needed to solve this problem?” They can
ignore unimportant info like names, etc. that can be distracting. If they can’t read the name of
the person in the word problem, have them substitute a name they know.
The numbers in the equation are the most important part. Have them pull the numbers out of the
equation on their paper like this (without deciding yet which operation will solve the problem):
Amanda wanted to decorate
each cupcake with 7 sprinkles.
She has 9 cupcakes.
How many sprinkles will she need?
7 9
Now that they’ve pulled out the numbers, they can begin to look for keywords to figure out what
to do with the numbers. The combination of “each” and “how many” indicates multiplication.
Now the child can add the appropriate symbols:
7 x 9 =
…and then solve the problem.