Teaching Word Problems

1. Word Problems in Mathematics
Shueb Sultan
Professional Development Center North (PDCN)

2. Outline
• What is a word problem
• Operation Clue words
• Creative and Effective ways of Teaching WPs
• Word Problems across different grades

3. What is a word problem?

4. What is a word problem?
A word problem in maths is a
maths question written as one sentence or more
that requires children
to apply their maths knowledge
to a 'real-life' scenario

5. Examples:
1. Ahmed rode his bike 7 miles to the library. He took a
shortcut on the way home which was only 5 miles long.
How many miles did Ahmed ride altogether?
2. 18 children were going to run a race in the park.
6 children left to get a drink of water.
5 left to play on the swings.
How many children stayed for the race?
3. Abid and Hassan bought a large pizza to share.
Abid ate 5/8 of the pizza.
What fraction of the pizza was left for Hassan?

6. Operation
Clue words

9. Equals
• is,
• are,
• was,
• were,
• will be gives,
• yields
• sold for

10. Group Activity
• Identify key terms used in word
problem across all grades

11. Operation Clue Words
Addition Subtraction Multiplication Division Equals
Total Left/leaves Multiplied Distribute Calculate

12. Creative and Effective ways of Teaching
Word Problems

14. Group Activity
• Solving Word Problems using CUBES methods

15. CUBES Method
• Ahmed rode his bike 7 miles to the library. He took a shortcut
on the way home which was only 5 miles long.
How many miles did Ahmed ride altogether?

17. CUBES Method

25. Create Word Poblems
G-1 G-2 G-3 G-4 G-5 G-6 G-7
45 35 40 48 49 55 45
7 6 8 23 88 2 7
9 7 67 3 7 45 9
10 8 5 45 6 12 10
18 88 3 6 44 7 18
54 90 12 70 23 9 54
Cows, Pencils, Rupees, Oranges, Runs, Goals, Books, Pens, Students

26. What is Unitary Method

30. Example

31. Examples