Sample Collection of Problems
Addition
Add to/result unknown - very basic to introduce third graders to bar models
1) Eight birds were sitting on the fence. Three more landed on the fence. How many are on the fence now?
Add to/change unknown
2) Eight birds were sitting on the fence. Some more landed on the fence. There are now 11 birds on the fence. How many birds landed on the fence?
Add to/start unknown
3) Some birds were on the fence. Three more landed on the fence. There are now 11 birds on the fence. How many birds were on the fence in the beginning?
Add to/result unknown – using money
4) Josie had $17 and her grandma gave her $25 for her birthday. How much money does she have now?
Add to/ change unknown
5) Josie had $17. Her grandma gave her some money for her birthday. She now has $42. How much money did her grandma give her?
Add to /start unknown
6) Josie had some money. Her grandma gave her $25 for her birthday. She now has $42. How much money did Josie have at the start?
Add to/result unknown – three addends
7) If 234 people attend a concert on Thursday night, 367 attend on Friday night, and 329 people attend on Saturday night. How many total people attended the concert?
Add to/ change unknown – three addends
8) 234 people attend on Thursday night, and 367 attend on Friday night. A total of 930 people attended on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. How many people attended on Saturday?
Add to/ start unknown
9) After buying 62 stamps, Mr. Jones now has 418 stamps. How many did he have at first?
Take from, Change unknown
10) Mr. Sims had 245 stamps. Then Mr. Jones gave him some. He now has 312. How many did Mr. Jones give him? (Add to /change unknown)
Put together/total unknown
11) What is the total length of the sides (perimeter) of a triangle if one side is 23 inches, another is 19 inches, and the third side is 32 inches?
Compare less, larger unknown
12) Paul is 21 years old. He is 23 years younger than his mother. How old is his mother?
Compare more, bigger unknown
13) There are 342 trucks parked outside the football stadium. There are 147 more cars than trucks. How many cars are there?
Subtraction
Take from/result unknown - A really simple problem to introduce bar models
14) Six squirrels were in a tree. Two ran away. How many were left in the tree?
Take from/change unknown
15) Six squirrels were in a tree. Some ran away. There were four left in the tree. How many ran away?
Take from/ start unknown
16) Some squirrels were in a tree. Two ran away. There were four left. How many were in the tree at the start?
Put together/addend unknown or Part-Part-Whole/ part unknown
17) A total of 39 dogs and humans were at the dog park. If there were 22 dogs, how many humans were there? **
Put together/total unknown or Part-Part-Whole/ total unknown
18) There were six green apples and four red apples are in a bowl. How many apples are in bowl?
Put together/part unknown or Part-Part-Whole/ part unknown
19) There are 10 apples in a bowl. Six of the apples are red and the rest are green. How many are green?
Part-Part-Whole/ part unknown or Put together/addend unknown
20) There are 263 people watching a play. If 79 of them are children, how many are adults?
Part-Part-Whole/ part unknown or Put together/addend unknown
21) There were a total of 406 people at the symphony concert. There were 214 children and the rest were adults. How many were adults?
Part-Part-Whole/whole unknown
22) There are 402 boys and 369 girls watching a parade. How many children are watching the parade in all?
Compare/difference unknown/more
23) Sam has $28. Jaquan has $31. How much more money does Jaquan have than Sam?
Take from/Result Unknown
24) Ryan had $134. He spent $28 at the Sporting Goods Store. How much money does he have left?
Take from/result unknown
25) Twenty-two dogs were playing at the dog park. Three left with their owners. How many dogs are at the dog park now?
Take from/Start unknown
26) Ryan went to the Sporting Goods store with his money. Ryan spent $46 in the Sporting Goods Store. He had $78 left. How much money did he have at first?
Take from/change unknown
27) Mia had $124. She purchased some spinners. She now has $88. How much did the spinners cost?
Multiplication
Equal groups/product unknown
28) At the toy store cars come in packs of six. If Jose buys four packs, how many toy cars will he buy in total?
Equal groups (measurement)/product unknown
29) Mrs. Bronto has 14 cans of Saurus Soup. If each can is three inches high, and she piles them one on top of another to make a Brontosaurus Soup Tower, how high will the tower be?
Equal groups/ product unknown
30) Jordan is having a birthday party. He wants to have a can of soda for all of his guests. If there are 18 people at the party, how many six-packs of soda will his mom have to buy, so everyone can have one can of soda?
Equal groups (measurement)/ group size unknown
31) Sami has Fruit by the Foot and it is 36 inches long. She cuts it into equal pieces so she and her three friends will each have a piece. How long will each piece of string be?
Equal groups (measurement)/ number of groups unknown
32) Mr. Davis, the art teacher, has a piece of yarn 56 inches long. He cuts it into pieces that are seven inches long. How many pieces will he get?
Arrays/area, group size unknown
33) Ben draws a rectangle with an area of 24 square centimeters. If one side is eight centimeters long, how long is a side perpendicular to it?
Array/area, number of groups unknown
34) Ms. Carpenter cuts a rectangle out of fabric. It is 48 square inches. The length is eight inches. How long is the width?
Compare/group size unknown
35) Aidan has three times as much money as Ella. They have a total of $36. How much money does Ella have?
Equal groups/number of groups unknown
36) If Mrs. Pencil goes to the store to buy erasers for the class. There are 24 students in the class. Erasers are sold three in a pack. How many packs of erasers must she buy to have one for each student?
Arrays/area, product unknown
37) Naomi is making an array with two-sided counters. She puts seven in a row and makes six rows. How many two-sided counters are in her array?
Arrays/area, group size unknown
38) There are three equal sections in the theater. Each section has eight rows with the same number of seats. There are 72 seats in each section. How many seats are in each row?
Arrays/area, size of group unknown
39) Mr. Rebmann is setting up chairs for a band concert. He needs 32 seats for the band members. He decides to put eight chairs in each row. How many rows does he need?
Compare (measurement)/product unknown
40) A Slinky is four inches long when in its box. How long will it be when it is stretched five times its length?
Compare (measurement)/smaller quantity unknown
41) Jennie has a jump rope. It is 48 inches long. This is six times the length of Sophia’s shoe. How long is Sophia’s shoe?
Compare (measurement)/comparative factor unknown
42) Shannon can spin her spinner on her finger for 42 seconds. Will can only spin his spinner for seven seconds. How many times longer can Shannon spin her spinner than Will?
Compare/smaller quantity unknown
43) Ebony has a collection of seashells. She has 32 seashells. This is four times as many as Shannon has. How many seashells does Shannon have?
Compare/smaller quantity unknown
44) In a parking lot, there are four times as many cars as buses. There are 356 cars. How many buses are there?
Compare/smaller quantity unknown
45) Justin has some dogs. He goes to the pet store and sees four times as many. There are eight dogs at the pet store. How many dogs does Justin have?
Compare/smaller quantity unknown
46) James buys packs of pencils for her classroom school supplies. She buys 192 pencils, which is eight times the number of students in her class. How many students are in her class?
Multi-step
Compare, smaller unknown and Put together/Part-part-whole, total/whole unknown
47) There are 37 children in the swimming pool. There are nine fewer adults than children in the pool. How many adults and children are in the pool?
Compare, bigger unknown and Put together/Part-part-whole total/whole unknown
48) Jaden has $37. If Nico has $6 more than Jaden, how much do Jaden and Nico have in all?
Change minus/Take from, result unknown and Change plus/Add to, result unknown
49) Jazmin has 47 stickers. She gives eight to Sammy. Then she gets 26 more for her birthday. How many stickers does she have now?
Compare, fewer unknown and Put together/Part-part-whole, total/whole unknown
50) Children are at a concert. There are 3,402 boys, and there are 987 fewer girls than boys. How many children are there in all?
Put-together/ Part-Part-whole, total/whole unknown and Compare, smaller unknown
51) At a show, there are 6,020 spectators - men, women and children. There are 3,860 men and 2,020 women. How many children are there?
Multiplication/division compare, unknown product and Put together/Part-part-whole, total/whole unknown
52) Joe has a stamp collection. He has 135 U.S. stamps, and three times as many foreign stamps. How many foreign stamps does he have? How many stamps does he have all together?
Change minus/take from, result unknown and Equal groups, unknown product
53) Haskell earns $2,395 per month. He spends $1,780 per month, and saves the rest. How much does he save in six months?
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