Work backward, word problems
Jill bought some bananas. Then she bought 4 apples. She left the store with 10 pieces of fruit. How many bananas did she buy?
6 bananas
? + 7 = 10
3
Ann had 3 bowls. Each bowl contained 2 carrots. How many carrots in all?
2 x 3 = 6
Would you add, subtract, or multiply to find the answer:
Cam had 7 apple slices. He ate 2 of them. How many were left?
subtract
Mike baked cookies. He gave 3 to his friend, Joe. Then, Mike had 9 cookies left. How many did he bake total?
12 cookies
? - 4 = 2
6
Jan had 4 boxes. There were 3 markers in each box. How many markers in all?
3 x 4 = 12
Nell baked 4 loaves of bread on Monday, 10 on Tuesday, and 2 on Wednesday. How many loaves of bread did she bake in all?
add
Lynn had some Pokemon cards. She gave 4 to her sister. Her mom bought her 3 more. Then she had 11 Pokemon cards. How many did she start with?
12 cards
? - 1 + 3 = 9
7
John had 5 backpacks. He had 6 books in each backpack. How many books did he have in all?
5 x 6 = 30
The Jones family had 6 red wagons. Each red wagon had two seats. How many seats were there in all?
multiply
Amy had a bag of candy. Then, she bought 5 more pieces. She gave 2 pieces to Bob. Then, she had 15 pieces. How many pieces of candy did she start with?
12 pieces of candy
? + 5 - 6 = 11
12
Jenn had 2 ziplock bags. There were 4 marbles in each ziplock bag. She also had 3 envelopes. There were 2 marbles in each envelope. How many marbles did Jenn have in all?
2 x 4 = 8
3 x 2 = 6
8 + 6 = 14
Jane, Beth, Stan, and Will had a baking contest. They each baked 7 cookies. How many cookies did they bake in all?
multiply
Rick had a bag of grapes. He gave 4 grapes to Leo. He gave 2 grapes to Ben. He gave 1 grape to Ally. He had 7 grapes left. How many did he start with?
14 grapes
? + 3 - 1 + 9 = 20
Kate baked cookies. She put 4 cookies each on 5 plates. Then, she put one cookie each in 3 bags. How many cookies were there in all?
4 x 5 = 20
1 x 3 = 3
20 + 3 = 23
Andy had 87 dollars. He went to Target and bought 3 soccer balls. He spent 40 dollars total. How much money does he have left?
subtract