1. Solving Word Problems

2. “Word Problems scare me!”

3. “Word Problems make me nervous!”

4. “Word Problems? I just skip them!”

5. Don’t Worry! With just 4 easy steps, you can become… a Word Problem Whiz!

6. Step 1 UNDERSTAND the problem. What are you trying to figure out? Here’s an example:

7. Yesterday, Alex saw 14 birds in his backyard. Today, he saw more birds as well. If in all he saw 26 birds, how many birds did he see today? In this problem, what are you trying to figure out?

8. If you said: “How many birds did Alex see today?” then… You’re right!

9. Step 2 Get a PLAN. How will you answer the question? Should you ADD, SUBTRACT, DIVIDE, MULTIPLY?

10. Look for clues. Here are some CLUE WORDS that will help you decide what to do.

11. Addition Clue Words in all altogether sum total

12. Subtraction Clue Words how many more how many are left difference

13. Let’s look at the example again. Yesterday, Alex saw 14 birds in his backyard. Today, he saw more birds as well. If in all he saw 26 birds, how many birds did he see today? Do you see any CLUE WORDS?

14. If you said… “in all,” or “more” then… You’re right!

15. The words “in all” or “more” tell us that we should ADD! Now that we UNDERSTAND the problem, and have a PLAN, we’re ready for the next step!

16. Step 3 SOLVE it! Write an equation using the information in the problem, and…

17. Work it out!

18. Give it a try! Yesterday, Alex saw 14 birds in his backyard. Today, he saw more birds as well. If in all he saw 26 birds, how many birds did he see today? Write an equation and SOLVE it.

19. If you wrote… b + 14 = 26 b = 12 then… You’re right!

20. Step 4 LOOK BACK. Does your answer fit the question?

21. We had to find out how many birds Alex saw today. We added the number he saw yesterday and used a variable to represent the amount he saw today since we did not know.

22. Our answer was “Alex saw 12 birds today.” It makes sense!

23. We did it! We are Word Problem Whizzes!

24. Here are the steps once more: Step 1 – UNDERSTAND the problem. Step 2 – Get a PLAN. Step 3 – SOLVE it! Step 4 – LOOK BACK.