What's the Problem? {January}

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Raise your hand if you like to give your students lots of practice with word problems.  My hand is raised!  If you're looking for a little change from the norm, then read on to learn about my monthly "What's the Problem?" mini books.

These little books are a great way to practice writing addition and subtraction word problems.  The students are tasked with creating a story (word)  problem for a given answer.  They have to use a different kind of thinking to do this, and they have to use the correct vocabulary terms as they write their problems (i.e. "how many more?"  "how many in all?" and so on).


My students are taught to write three sentences.  The first two sentences pose the problem, and the third asks the question. I also tell my students that they need to use the problem label throughout their story.

 For example:

Timmy made 20 snowballs.  He threw 5 of them at his brother.  How many snowballs does Timmy have left?


What's the Problem? is a great way to get students thinking about math from another angle and encourages them to use math vocabulary appropriately.  When your students are ready, they could write two step story problems. You could also have students draw a model for their word problem in the space at the bottom of each page. 

You can grab this freebie by clicking {here}. 

Enjoy your freebie!!

Also, you can find my other "What's the Problem?" mini books here. 

Toodles!
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