Thinking Through Math Word Problems

Strategies for Intermediate Elementary School Students

Art Whimbey, Jack Lochhead, Paula B. Potter, Arthur Whimbey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780805806038
• eBook ISBN: 9781136468568
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

This innovative text teaches elementary school students the techniques of critical thinking and problem solving and applies those methods to mathematical word problems. It supplements traditional fourth, fifth, and sixth grade textbooks and increases students' thinking and problem solving abilities.

Students are taught the fundamentals of these processes by applying them both to simple and multi-step problems which are provided. These problems -- many written by elementary school pupils --gradually increase in difficulty, making learning both fun and stimulating. Special attention is given to typical errors and sources of conceptual difficulty.

1 Addition & Subtraction

Lesson 1

• 3. A heart-shaped box has 3 snakes and a square box has 8 snakes.
  Draw the heart-shaped box and show the snakes in it.
  Draw the square box and show the snakes in it.
  How many snakes are there altogether?

• 9. Mad Max saw 4 coats in the closet. He put 2 spiders in each coat. Then he saw 3 hats. He put 5 spiders in each hat.
  How many total spiders did he put in the clothing?_____
• 10. Mr. Frog is just learning to talk. For 3 days he said 2 words each day. For the next 4 days he said 5 words each day.
  How many words did he say in all 7 days?_____

Lesson 2

• 2. Draw a box with 8 cookies in it.
  Pretend you ate 3 cookies.
  Cross out the 3 cookies you ate.
  How many cookies are left?______

• 4. Rafael had 18 fish in his tank. He gave 5 fish to his cousin.
  How many fish did Rafael have left?______
• 5. Peter had 25 spiders. He gave 4 spiders to Addison and 10 to Mike.
  How many spiders did Peter have left?______
• 6. There are 20 children in class. 5 children left their math books home. 3 other children lost their math books.
  How many children have their math books in class?
• 7. Tom had $10. He spent $4 for a turtle.
  How much did he have left?
• 8. Keithon had $9. He bought a birthday cake for $6 and candles for $1.
  How much did he have left?
• 9. Paula bought a camera for $14. She gave the clerk $20.
  How much change should she receive back?
• 10. Morris bought a snake for $14 and a spider for $8. He gave the clerk $30.
  How much change did he get?
• 11. There were 150 ants in a jar. Alvin thought they were raisins and ate 12. Betty saw Alvin eating them, so she ate 14 herself.
  How many ants were left in the jar?

Lesson 3

1. Benny Bear woke up thirsty. He drank a can of soda. Then he drank 16 more cans of soda.
   How many cans of soda did he drink altogether?
2. Godzilla was hungry. He went to Burger King and ate the building. Then he ate 5 more Burger King buildings and 3 McDonald's buildings.
   How many buildings did he eat altogether?_____
3. There were 17 trees in a field. It started to rain and 8 trees ran away.
   How many trees were left?_____
4. Tim had a can with 75 worms. He put 23 worms in his brother's bed and 17 worms in his sister's bed.
   How many worms were left?_____
5. Jack bought a shirt for $8 and a belt for $3. He gave the clerk a $20 bill.
   How much change did he get?______
6. Cheryl bought a monkey for $300 and a puppy for $100. She gave the clerk a check for $500.
   How much change should she receive?______
7. Mrs. Gold took her class of 25 children to the zoo. The lions ate 3 children and the bears ate 5.
   How many children were left?______
8. A box had 20 roaches and 30 spiders. Bill thought they were candies. He ate 3 roaches and 5 spiders. Doris saw Bill eating them, so she ate 4 roaches and 7 spiders.
   How many roaches did the children eat altogether?_____
   How many roaches were left in the box?______
   How many spiders were left in the box?______
   How many total animals were left in the box?______
9. In the kindergarten classroom, a small round tank had 3 snakes, a large round tank had 8 snakes, a small square tank had 4 snakes, and a large square tank had 10 snakes.
   Draw all the tanks and show the snakes in each.
   All the snakes in the square tanks got away.
   How many snakes got away?_____
   How many snakes are left in the tanks?______
10. Mario earned $95 mowing lawns. He spent $30 for a fishing pole. Then he found $15 in a fish he caught.
    Now how much money does he have?_____

Lesson 4

1. Brenda put 3 turtles and 4 frogs in her brother's bed.
   How many total animals were in the bed?_____
2. Monster had 11 cow ears. He ate 5 ears for dinner.
   How many were left?______
3. The Dolphins football team had 13 points. Then they scored a touchdown which gave them 6 more points.
   How many total points did they have?______
4. There are 26 apples in a bag. Eight apples have worms in them.
   How many apples do not have worms?______
5. Mr. Davis had 106 hairs on his head. One morning he found that 30 new hairs had grown on his head. Then he became a teacher and lost 80 hairs worrying about his students.
   ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Addition & Subtraction
• 2 Multiplication
• 3 Division
• 4 Fractions