Problem Solving Vocabulary
This word means to find the total when adding equal groups together.
What is multiply?
A bakery sells 24 muffins each day. How many muffins are sold in 7 days?
168 muffins
A library has 12 shelves. Each shelf holds 34 books. If the library adds 5 more identical shelves, how many books are there in total?
578 books
A baker has 144 cupcakes. If he packs them into boxes of 12, how many boxes does he need?
12 boxes
A farmer collects 1,080 eggs from his chickens. He packs them into cartons with 12 eggs each. If he delivers the cartons to 9 stores equally, how many cartons does each store receive?
10 cartons per store
This word tells you to break a number into smaller, equal groups.
What is divide?
Each classroom has 28 students. If there are 12 classrooms, how many students are there in total?
336 students
A movie theater has 18 rows of seats. Each row has 20 seats. If 3 theaters have the same setup, how many seats are there?
1,080 seats
A farmer has 360 apples. If he puts them into bags of 15, how many bags does he fill?
24 bags
A company prints 1,200 flyers. They pack 50 flyers into each box. If the boxes are delivered evenly to 10 locations, how many boxes does each location receive?
2 boxes per location
If a problem asks how many are “in each group,” you are likely using this operation.
What is division?
A farmer plants 35 rows of corn. Each row has 48 corn plants. How many corn plants are in total?
1,680 corn plants
A baker makes 24 cookies per batch. If he bakes 6 batches in the morning and 4 more in the evening, how many cookies does he bake in total?
240 cookies
A class of 32 students is divided into groups of 4. How many groups are there?
8 groups
A teacher has 864 pencils. She divides them into packs of 12. If she gives 8 packs to each classroom, how many classrooms receive packs?
9 classrooms
When solving a word problem, this step helps you figure out what the question is asking.
What is identify the question?
A store sells 16 packs of markers. Each pack has 12 markers. How many markers are there in all?
192 markers
A school orders 15 sets of chairs. Each set has 28 chairs. If the school adds 10 more sets, how many chairs does it have?
700 chairs
A factory produces 900 toys. If they are packed into 30 boxes, how many toys are in each box?
30 toys
A school cafeteria makes 2,400 meals per week. If meals are prepared in batches of 200, how many batches do they make each day for a 5-day school week?
2 batches per day.
In a multi-step word problem, this helps you decide which operations to use.
What is analyze the information?
A stadium has 45 rows of seats, with 22 seats in each row. How many seats are in the stadium?
990 seats
A store receives 14 crates of oranges. Each crate has 32 oranges. If half of the oranges are sold, how many are left?
224 oranges
A bookstore has 600 books and wants to place them evenly on 25 shelves. How many books go on each shelf?
24 books
A shipment of 2,500 cans of soup arrives at a warehouse. They are packed into 25 boxes, and then the boxes are divided among 5 food banks. How many boxes does each food bank receive?
5 boxes per food bank