Module 3 Calculating
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Can I identify the calculation needed to solve a word problem?

Example review questions

  • What calculation would you do to answer each of these problems?
    • Ella buys a 26p lolly. She pays with a 50p piece. How much change does she get?
    • I need to buy 30 pencils. They come in packs of five. How many packs do I need?
    • Tom is 114 cm tall. Josh is 12 cm taller. How tall is Josh?
    • How many legs are there altogether on six spiders?
  • Pick one of the problems to the left and draw a picture or diagram to explain how you would solve it.
  • Write your own word problem to match the calculation
    8 × 4.
  • What important things do you remember when solving word problems? What clues help you to work out which operation to use?

Teaching guidance

This teaching guidance document suggests some of the key vocabulary, models, images and practical equipment that children should experience and be able to use. It also includes some teaching tips to provide a few starting points for ways of supporting children with this area of mathematics.

DOC file Can I identify the calculation needed to solve a word problem? - teaching guidance | 79KB new window

Consolidation and practice

These resources are to support children in guided or independent work. Roll over the highlighted resource for a description.

XLS file Problems Year 3 | 63KB new window

XLS file Three monkeys | 118KB new window

SWF file Toyshop new window

DOC file Problems involving more and less teaching prompts | 44KB new window

PDF file Springboard 3, Unit 8 Selecting the appropriate operation to solve a problem | 155KB new window

PDF file Springboard 4, Unit 6 Making decisions | 197KB new window

DOC file 'Deciding which operation' resource cards | 30KB new window

Toyshop

toyshop.png

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Opportunities to use and apply

Possible contexts include:

  • real-life problems, e.g.
    • Working out what items can be bought with pocket money.
    • Organising enough food and drink for a class party.
    • Finding out how much sponsorship money has been raised.
  • number problems and puzzles, e.g. Tilly's parcel cost 55p to post. She stuck on eight stamps. Each stamp was worth either 10p or 5p. How many stamps of each value did Tilly stick on her parcel?
  • data handling, e.g. How many more children ate school dinners on Wednesday than Thursday?
    A table with two columns and five rows. The titles of the columns are days and number of school dinners. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday appear in the days column. 11, 13, 17, eight and 13 appear in the number of school dinners column.

Confirming learning

Ask probing questions such as:

  • In a school there are 48 girls and 65 boys. How many more boys are there than girls? Tom answers this question by working out 48 + 65. How would you help Tom to see that this cannot be right?
  • Make up a word problem to match each of these calculations.
    6 × 5
    30 − 18
    30 ÷ 3
    40 + 55
  • A notebook costs 40p and a ruler costs 25p. What word problems could I ask based on this information? Can you write down the calculation number sentence to match each of your word problems?
  • What clues do you look for in problems to help you to work out whether to add, subtract, multiply or divide?