Operation Clues
"In all," "Total," and "Sum" are clues for this operation.
What is addition?
Leo had some stickers. He gave a few to Sam. What operation do you use to find how many he has left?
What is subtraction?
Max has 145 goldfish and 230 neon tetras. How many fish does he have in all?
What is 375 fish? (145 + 230)
The baker made 85 chocolate cupcakes and 42 vanilla cupcakes. How many more chocolate cupcakes did he make?
What is 43 more cupcakes?
Mia bought a pack of 20 stickers. She gave 5 to her brother and 5 to her sister. How many stickers does she have left?
What is 10 stickers?
"Difference," "How many more," and "Leftover" point to this operation.
What is subtraction?
A teacher has chairs and wants to put them into equal groups. What operation finds how many groups she can make?
What is division?
The pet store has 8 bird cages. Each cage holds 5 parakeets. How many parakeets are there altogether?
What is 40 parakeets? (8x5)
A box contains 24 donuts. If 4 friends share them equally, how many donuts does each friend get?
What is 6 donuts?
Leo had $500. He spent $150 on a bike and $75 on a helmet. How much money does he have now?
What is $275?
"Each" or "Per" when you are combining equal groups to find a larger total.
What is multiplication?
Maya buys a shirt and a hat. She pays with a $100 bill. What operations do you use to find her change?
What are addition and subtraction? (Add the items, then subtract from $100)
There are 450 crickets in a large tank. The lizards eat 125 of them. How many crickets are left?
What is 325 crickets? (450 - 125)
The bakery sells cookies in bags of 6. If they sell 9 bags, how many total cookies did they sell?
What is 54 cookies?
There are 3 rows of chairs with 8 chairs in each row. If 5 people sit down, how many chairs are left empty?
What is 19 empty chairs?
"Share equally," "Split," or "Cut into equal pieces" point to this operation.
What is division?
Tim has 3 bags of marbles. Each bag has the exact same number. What operation finds his total marbles?
What is multiplication?
A shelf holds 72 dog toy boxes. If they are stacked in 8 equal rows, how many boxes are in each row?
What is 9 boxes?
The baker had 600 bags of flour. He used 245 bags on Monday and 180 bags on Tuesday. How many bags are left?
What is 175 bags?
A toy store had 4 boxes of green blocks. Each box had 10 blocks. They also had 15 blue blocks. How many blocks did they have in all?
What is 55 blocks?
When a problem asks you to change something twice (like buying two items and getting change).
What are addition and subtraction? (Or two-step subtraction)
Sarah has a ribbon. She cuts off a piece, and then cuts the rest into equal smaller strips. Name both operations.
What are subtraction and division? (Subtract the first piece, then divide the rest)
The shelter has 342 dogs, 289 cats, and 115 rabbits. How many animals do they have altogether?
What is 746 animals?
Chef Carlos bakes 7 pans of brownies. Each pan is cut into 10 brownies. He sells 45 brownies. How many are left?
What is 25 brownies?
Ben grows 9 rows of pumpkins with 5 pumpkins in each row. He sells 23 pumpkins at the market. How many pumpkins does he have left?
What is 22 pumpkins?