Sample Word Problems Types Join Result Unknown (JRU) There are two classes in the second grade. Mr. Green s class read books. Ms. Plum s class read. How many books did the whole second grade read? Jack and Jill were counting the number of rocks they d collected. Jack collected rocks and Jill collected. How many total rocks did they collect? There was a stack of books in the library. Stephanie added more books to the pile. How many books are there in all? David has a ribbon that is inches long. He attached inches more to the end. How long is his ribbon now? Robert worked on his art project for minutes on Wednesday and minutes on Thursday. How long did Robert spend working on his art project? Join Change Unknown (JCU) Christopher has painted flowers in the last week. He painted on Monday and some more on Tuesday. How many flowers did he paint on Tuesday? Bella collected some plates for her party. She collected plates. Her mother gave her some more. Now she has plates. How many dishes did her mom give her? Matthew saved up some money for a new skateboard. He had $ and earned some more by doing his chores. Now he has $. How much did he earn doing his chores? Ethan had a piece of string that was feet long. His mom gave him another piece of string. Now his string is feet long. How long was the string his mom gave him? Matt had to write a book report for his homework. He worked on his book report for minutes on Monday. Then some more on Tuesday. He has worked on his report for a total of minutes. How many minutes did he work on it Tuesday? Join Start Unknown (JCU) Jose has some erasers. Kate gave him more. Now he has erasers. How many erasers did Jose start with? There are some pandas at the zoo. Next year more will be born. If there are now, how many were there to start? Jacob is playing a video game. He scores some points the first time he plays a game. Then he scores more points. Now it says that he has points altogether. How many points did he score the first time he played the game? Kelly had a piece of ribbon. Mary gave her more inches of ribbon. Now her ribbon is inches long. How long was her ribbon to start with?
Scott practiced shooting baskets on Friday. On Saturday, he practiced shooting baskets for more minutes. He has practiced for a total of minutes. How many minutes did he practice shooting baskets for on Friday? Separate Result Unknown (SRU) Sam has pretzels. He eats. How many pretzels does he have left? Sophia has stickers. She gives to her sister. How many stickers are left? Tom has flowers. He gives to his mom. How many flowers does he have left? Mia has erasers. She gives to her friend. How many erasers does she have left? A ribbon is inches long. Chris cuts inches off of it. How long is the ribbon now? Lily has cents. She buys a ball for cents. How much money does she have left? A class has minutes of freeplay. They spent minutes playing handball. How much time do they have left of freeplay? Separate Change Unknown (SCU) Sam has pretzels. He eats some. Now he has. How many pretzels did he eat? Sophia has stickers. She gives some to her sister. Now she has. How many stickers did she give to her sister? Tom has flowers. He gives some to his mom. Now he has left. How many flowers did he give to his mom? Mia has erasers. She gives some to her friend. Now she has. How many erasers did she give to her friend? A ribbon is inches long. Chris cuts off some of it. Now it is inches long. How much did Chris cut off? Lily has cents. She buys a ball. Now she has cents. How much money did the ball cost? A class has minutes of freeplay. They spent some time playing handball. Now they have minutes left of freeplay. How much time did they spend playing handball? Separate Start Unknown (SSU) Sam has some pretzels. He eats. He has left. How many pretzels did he have to start with? Sophia has some stickers. She gives to her sister. She has left. How many stickers did she have to begin with? Tom has some flowers. He gives to his mom. He has left. How many flowers did he start with?
Mia has some erasers. She gives to her friend. Now she left. How many erasers does she start with? Chris has a ribbon. Chris cuts inches off of it. Now it is inches long. How long was the ribbon to start with? Lily has some money. She buys a ball for cents. Now she has cents. How much money did she start with? A class has some time for freeplay. They spent minutes playing handball. THey have minutes left. How much time did they have for freeplay? PPW-WU-Part Part Whole-Whole Unknown Noah has blue airplanes and red airplanes. How many airplanes does he have? Cindy has red pencils and yellow pencils. How many pencils does she have? Mr. Smith has boys in his class and girls. How many students does he have? Mrs. Garcia ran miles on Monday and miles on Tuesday. How many miles did she run on Monday and Tuesday? Juan earned cents last week and cents this week. How much money did he earn altogether? Natalie spent minutes on her homework on Wednesday and on her homework on Thursday. How much time did she spend on her homework on Wednesday and Thursday? Part Part Whole-Part Unknown (PPW-PU) Noah has airplanes. are blue and the rest are red. How many red airplanes does he have? Cindy has pencils. are red and the rest are yellow. How many yellow pencils does she have? Mr. Smith has students in his class. Some are boys and are girls. How many boys does he have in his class? Mrs. Garcia ran miles on Monday and some miles on Tuesday. She ran miles on Monday and Tuesday. How many miles did she run on Tuesday? Juan earned cents. He earned cents last week. He earned some money this week. How much money did he earn this week? Natalie spent minutes on her homework on Wednesday and Thursday. She minutes on Wednesday. How much time did she spend doing homework on Thursday? Part Part Whole-Both Parts Unknown (PPW-PPU)
Noah has airplanes. Some are blue and some are red. How many blue airplanes and red airplanes does he have? Cindy has pencils. Some are red and some are yellow. How many red pencils and how many yellow pencils does she have? Mr. Smith has students in his class. Some are boys and some are girls. How many boys and how many girls does he have in his class? Mrs. Garcia ran miles on Monday and Tuesday. How many miles did she run on Monday and how many miles did she run on Tuesday? Max and his family went on a trip to the Grand Canyon. Their trip was miles long. They traveled on Saturday and Sunday. How many miles did they travel each day? Juan earned cents. He earned some money last week and some this week. How much money did he earn last week and how much money did he earn this week? Natalie spent minutes on her homework on Wednesday and Thursday. How much time did she spend on Wednesday and how much time did she spend on Thursday? Compare Difference Unknown (CDU): Cindy has books. Sally has books. How many more books does Cindy have than Sally? Kelly has M&Ms. Sarah has M&Ms. How many more M&Ms does Kelly have than Sarah? Mrs. Smith has students. Mrs. Jones has students. How many more students does Mrs. Smith have than Mrs. Jones? Jacob has pencils. Bryan has pencils. How many more pencils does Jacob have than Bryan? Kelly has dollars. Sarah has dollars. How many more dollars does Kelly have than Sarah? Jacob did his homework in minutes. Bryan did his homework in minutes. How many more minutes did it take Jacob to do his homework than Bryan? Compare Bigger Unknown (CBU) Mrs. Smith has students. Mrs. Jones has more students than Mrs. Smith. How many students does Mrs. Jones have? The blue ribbon measures centimeters. The red ribbon is more centimeters longer than the blue ribbon. How long is the red ribbon? Angelina has stickers. Mya has more stickers than Angelina. How many stickers does Mya have?
Jacob has Pokémon cards. Bryan has more Pokéman cards than Jacob. How many Pokémon cards does Bryan have? Angelina has dollars. Mya has more dollars than Angelina. How many dollars does Mya have? Jacob watches TV for hours. Bryan watches TV for more hours than Jacob. How many hours does Bryan watch TV? Compare Smaller Unknown (CSU) Mary has crackers. She has more crackers than Sam. How many crackers does Sam have? Scott has rocks. He has more rocks than Tom. How many rocks does Tom have? Sarah s dress is inches long. Her dress is more inches longer than Mary s dress. How long is Mary s dress? Jacob has video games. He has more video games than Bryan. How many video games does Bryan have? Scott has dollars. He has more dollars than Tom. How many dollars does Tom have? Sarah lives miles from school. She lives more miles than Mary. How many miles from school does Mary live? Jacob played Minecraft for minutes. He played minutes more than Bryan. How many minutes did Bryan play Minecraft?