Problem Solving and the Common Core

Appendix A: Collection of Word Problems

One-Step Addition and Subtraction Word Problems

1. Myona collected 75 ‘One Direction’ stickers. She gave Ton’ye 36 of her stickers. How many ‘One Direction’ stickers does Myona now have?
2. Myona gave Ton’ye 36 ‘One Direction’ stickers. Now she has 45. How many stickers did Ton’ye have before?
3. Ton’ye has 19 ‘Justin Bieber’ stickers. Then she buys 18 more ‘Justin Bieber’ stickers. How many stickers does Ton’ye have now?
4. Ton’ye has 37 ‘Justin Bieber’ stickers and 36 ‘One Direction’ stickers. How many stickers does Ton’ye have?
5. James’ class has 4 fewer students than Qualee’s class. James’ class has 26 students. How many students are in Qualee’s class?
6. 6. Since the first day of school, 2 students have left Qualee’s class. Qualees’s class now has 28 students. How many students were in Qualee’s class on the first day of school?
7. 17 students in Mr. Freeman’s class buy pretzels on the field trip to the Siegel Center. In Ms. Anderson’s class, 9 more students buy pretzels than in Mr. Freeman’s class. How many students in Ms. Anderson’s class buy pretzels?
8. 8.There were 32 students in Mr. Osborne’s class eating lunch. Then, students from Ms. Davis and Ms. Anderson’s class joined them. Now there are 97 total students eating lunch. How many students combined from Ms. Davis and Ms. Anderson’s class joined Mr. Osborne’s class?
9. There were 67 ‘Panda Pack’ bagged lunches at the start of lunch. After the fourth graders ate some, 39 ‘Panda Packs’ remained. How many ‘Panda Packs were eaten by the fourth graders?
10. At the ‘Father Daughter Dance’, 59 students bought ice cream sundaes and 39 students bought popcorn. How many more students bought ice-cream sundaes than popcorn?
11. Cameron’s book has 38 more pages than Jeremiah’s book. There are 49 pages in Jeremiah’s book. How many pages are in Cameron’s book?
12. There are 17 oak trees on Carver’s playground. Volunteers from Carverponics will plant 29 poplar trees today. How many more poplar trees than oak trees will there be on the playground?
13. 13. Marlin had 49 dimes and 45 pennies in his bank. Valencia gave him 38 pennies and 11 quarters. How many pennies does Marlin have now?
14. Tayquawn had 29 Pokémon cards. Aniyah has 17 more than Tayquawn. How many Pokémon cards does she have?
15. It was a rainy summer week. To pass the time, Dylan read 13 books. He read 6 magazines, 3 novels, and ___ comic books. How many comic books did he read?

Two-Step Addition and Subtraction Word Problems

1. Dylan read 36 pages from Diary of a Wimpy Kid on Monday morning. He read 24 pages from the same book on Monday afternoon. After dinner he read 15 more pages from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. How many pages did Dylan read on Monday?
2. Dylan read some pages from Diary of a Wimpy Kid on Monday morning. He read 24 more pages on the same afternoon. Then, after dinner he read 15 more. If he read a total of 75 pages on Monday, how many pages did he read in the morning?
3. Dylan read 36 pages from Diary of a Wimpy Kid on Monday morning. He read some pages in the afternoon. After dinner Dylan read 15 pages from the ‘Wimpy Kid’ book. If he read 75 pages on Monday, how many of the pages were read in the afternoon?
4. 4. Dylan read 36 pages from his ‘Wimpy Kid’ book on Monday morning. In the afternoon he read 24 pages. He also read some pages after dinner. If he read 75 pages from Diary of a Wimpy Kid on Monday, how many of those pages were read after dinner?
5. By Monday afternoon, Dylan had read 60 pages from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. On the same day his friend James had read 55 pages by the afternoon and put the book back on the shelf. After dinner Dylan read 15 more pages. How many more pages did Dylan read on Monday than James did?
6. On Monday morning Dylan read some pages from his ‘Wimpy Kid’ book. His friend James read 20 pages fewer than he did. Then, Dylan read 39 more pages during the course of the day. If Dylan has now read 75 pages, how many has James read?
7. On Monday, Dylan read 75 pages. James read 20 pages fewer than Dylan. James read 15 fewer pages than Quan’ye. How many pages did Quan’ye read?
8. When I woke up, it was 60 degrees. During the day, the temperature increased by 30 degrees and then it began to decrease. When I went to bed, it was 50 degrees. What was the total amount of temperature change during the day?
9. The temperature from morning to noon increased by 30 degrees and slowly began to decrease. Near bedtime, the temperature was 50 degrees. If there was a total fluctuation in temperature of 70 degrees that day, what did the temperature read in the morning?
10. For the school dance, Cameron’s mom baked 96 cupcakes. If she sold 36 of them in the morning, and baked 24 more for the afternoon, how many cupcakes would she have?
11. On Saturday morning, Sweet Frog Frozen Yogurt had 26 toppings to choose from. By the afternoon, they ran out of 15 of the toppings. The storeowner sent an employee to retrieve 20 more toppings for the yogurt store. How many toppings was the store stocked with when the employee returned?
12. At the Virginia State Fair there are 59 fair goers in line for cotton candy. A family of 8 grew restless and stepped out of line. A Boy Scout troop of 12 members, stepped into the cotton candy line when they saw the family leave. How many fair goers are now in line for cotton candy?
13. There are 63 folks standing in line for cotton candy at the fair. There are 16 fewer fair goers in line for the bumper cars. There are 9 fewer folks in line for the Ferris wheel than in line for bumper cars. How many folks are in line for the bumper cars?
14. There are 38 fair goers in line for the bumper cars. There are 9 more people waiting in line for the Ferris wheel than there are people in line for the bumper cars. If there are 16 more people waiting in line for cotton candy than the bumper cars, how many are in line for cotton candy?
15. A waiter at Ihop had 21 customers he was waiting on. If 10 of his customers left when they were through with breakfast and 23 more customers arrived, how many customers would he be waiting on?