Hello everyone! Today, we’re going to have some fun with word problems. Word problems are like little stories that need solving. We’ll read them carefully and decide if we need to add or subtract to find the answer. Let’s get started!
Matt is super excited about his birthday party. He has some balloons to decorate. He has 5 blue balloons and 6 purple balloons. How many balloons does he have altogether?
When we see a word problem, it’s important to read it all first. Then, we can go back and find the important parts. Let’s underline the important information: Matt has 5 blue balloons and 6 purple balloons. We need to find out how many balloons he has in total.
The word “total” is a clue that tells us we need to add. Let’s draw the balloons to help us see: 5 blue balloons and 6 purple balloons. Now, let’s count them all together: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Matt has 11 balloons in total!
So, 5 plus 6 equals 11. Great job! We added the balloons to find the answer.
At Matt’s birthday party, there were 12 pizzas. The kids ate 7 of them. How many pizzas are left?
Let’s read the problem and find the important parts. There were 12 pizzas, and the kids ate 7. We need to find out how many are left.
When you eat pizza, it disappears, right? So, we need to subtract. Let’s draw the 12 pizzas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Now, let’s cross out the 7 pizzas that were eaten: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
How many pizzas are left? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. There are 5 pizzas left!
So, 12 minus 7 equals 5. We subtracted to find the answer.
When you have a word problem, look for clues like “total” or “left over” to help you decide whether to add or subtract. Drawing pictures can help you see the problem and find the answer. Keep practicing, and you’ll become a word problem expert!
Great job, everyone! Keep having fun with math, and we’ll see you next time!
Balloon Counting Adventure: Gather some balloons or use colored paper circles to represent balloons. Create your own word problem by choosing two different colors and deciding how many of each you have. Ask a friend or family member to solve your word problem by adding the balloons together. Can you make a word problem with three different colors?
Pizza Party Role Play: Pretend you are at Matt’s birthday party. Use paper plates to represent pizzas. Start with 12 plates and pretend to eat 7 by removing them. How many are left? Now, create a new scenario: What if there were 15 pizzas and you ate 8? How many would be left? Try different numbers and see how subtraction helps you find the answer.
Word Problem Detective: Become a word problem detective in your own home! Look around and find situations where you can create a word problem. For example, count how many apples are in the fruit bowl and how many you eat. Write a word problem about it and solve it. Share your word problem with a family member and see if they can solve it too!
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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Welcome to Kids Academy! Hello everyone! Let’s open the worksheet. Don’t forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel. You can find the link to this app in the comments below. Today, we’re going to be looking at some word problems. We’ll read the directions carefully and the word problems even more carefully. Let’s get started right away!
**Birthday Word Problems**
Read each word problem, circle the correct operation (plus or minus) to complete the equation, then add or subtract the numbers and circle the correct total. In this worksheet, we need to read the problems carefully, figure out whether to add or subtract, and then solve the problem.
Let’s get started!
Matt is really excited for his seventh birthday party. He is hanging balloons around. He has five blue balloons and six purple balloons. How many balloons does he have in total?
Whenever I see a word problem, I like to read the whole thing first, then go back and underline the important information. Let’s go back and underline the important information.
Matt is hanging balloons around—that’s cool but not so important for our problem. He has five blue balloons—that’s important information. Let’s underline that. And six purple balloons—another important piece of information to underline.
How many balloons does he have in total? “In total” is my clue word. I think we need to figure out how many blue and purple balloons we have together.
Let’s draw the balloons. I know there are five blue balloons and six purple balloons. Now that I have my drawing, I need to think deeply about the five blue balloons and six purple balloons. Do you think we are going to add them or take some away?
Nowhere does it say a balloon was popped or taken away. The number of balloons is not getting smaller; it’s going to get larger because we need to find the total of blue and purple balloons.
The word “total” usually indicates that this is an addition problem. So let’s count our balloons or add them together. I know we have five in the top row: one, two, three, four, five. Let’s keep counting to find the total: six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.
I think there are 11 balloons, but let’s write 5 plus 6 and check one more time. Using the strategy of counting on: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, eleven.
Five plus six is eleven, so this problem asks us to add the balloons, giving us a total of eleven balloons—both blue and purple.
Let’s read the next problem just as carefully to see if it wants us to add or subtract.
At the same birthday party, Matt and his friend ate pizza for dinner. There were 12 pizzas, and the children ate seven of them. How many pizzas were left over?
We read the whole problem, but now let’s go back and underline the important information. Of course, we’ll draw the pizzas. Unfortunately, we can’t eat the pizzas!
There were 12 pizzas—that’s a fact. It doesn’t sound like we’re getting any more pizzas. The children ate seven of them—another important piece of information. When you eat pizza, does it disappear or do you get an extra pizza? Usually, it disappears into my stomach, which is like taking pizza away, or subtracting.
So it seems like we want to know how many pizzas were left after the kids ate seven. If you ate seven, are we adding or subtracting?
Let’s draw our 12 pizzas: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve pizzas. Now, I ate seven pizzas. Those pizzas are disappearing, so we are subtracting.
Let’s cross out the seven pizzas that the kids ate to find the answer: one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven.
So how many pizzas are left over? One, two, three, four, five—five pizzas left over. So I think the answer is five: twelve minus seven equals five.
Let’s write that: twelve minus seven equals five. We can use the strategy of counting back to see if twelve minus seven really equals five.
Twelve—remember, don’t count twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven—five fingers up. Twelve minus seven is five.
Remember, when you have a word problem, look for clues like “total” or “left over” to help you decide whether to add or subtract. Draw pictures to help you visualize the problem and figure out the answer.
Great job, everyone! We’ll see you next time!
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This version removes any informal language and maintains a clear, educational tone.
