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Which Operation?
Extra Information
What are the clue words?
100
On Wednesday, you saw 12 robins in one tree and 7 in another. How many robins did you see in all?
We want to know how many robins there are. Add 12 and 7 to get 19.
100
You have 17 birthday gifts! 9 came from your family and the rest came from your friends. How many came from your friends?
You would subtract, because you are finding the difference, not the total.
100
Janelle has a bunch of balloons. Three are pink, two are blue, and 7 are orange. How many pink and blue balloons does she have?
We do not need to know how many pink balloons there are. It is extra information.
100
Emily, Melissa, and Matthew went bowling. Emily bowled a 128. Melissa bowled a 145. Matthew bowled a 106. What is the sum of their scores?
The clue word is SUM, to get a sum we have to ADD.
200
Your friends just gave you 12 sparkle markers, now you have 19! How many did you have before your friends gave you 12 more?
We want to know how many markers we had before our friends gave us more. You would subtract 12 from 19 to get 7.
200
Your 8 friends all have 2-wheel bicycles. How many tires is that altogether?
We would use addition because we want to know the total number of tires on all of the bicycles, we are not taking anything away.
200
Sam ate 12 chocolate chip cookies and Maria ate two sugar cookies. Michelle's favorite type of cookie is snickerdoodle, she ate five. How many cookies did Sam and Maria eat?
We do not need to know about Michelle or the type of cookies that she likes.
200
The Buffalo Bills played the New York Jets in a football game. The Bills scored 42 points. The Jets scored 28 points. How many more points did the Bills score than the Jets?
"How many MORE" is the important part, it tells us that we need to subtract.
300
You picked 8 flowers and your friend picked 19. How many more flowers did your friend pick?
We want to know the difference between the numbers of flowers. We would subtract 8 from 19 to get 11.
300
Tom made 31 airplanes but only 12 could fly. How many of them could not fly?
We would use subtraction because we are finding a part of the whole- some fly and some do not.
300
Today is Kyle's ninth birthday. He got a bunch of new clothes from his grandmother. He got two shirts, three pairs of pants, and a pair of shoes. He also got a parakeet from his uncle. How many pieces of clothing did he get?
We don't need to know how old he is or that he got a parakeet. The extra information is there to confuse us.
300
Harry is reading a chapter book that has 432 pages. He has already read 116 pages. How many pages does he have left to read?
The important word is in the question: how many are LEFT, telling us that we need to subtract the pages he already read from the total pages in the book.
400
Today is May 4th and your birthday is on May 21st. How many more days until your birthday?
We want to know the number of days between now and the birthday. You would take the birthday date, the 21st, and take away today's date, the 4th, to get 17 days.
400
Your two grandparents and six cousins are coming over for Thanksgiving at your house. You live at home with your two parents and your sister. How many people are going to be at Thanksgiving dinner?
We would add because we are finding the total number of people that are coming over PLUS the people who live in the house already.
400
You have to share your 8 candies with your sister. They are Airheads, Snickers, and Tootsie Rolls. How many are each of you going to get?
We don't need to know what types of candy they are, just the numbers.
400
Matthew ate sixteen candy bars on Monday, twelve on Tuesday, nine on Wednesday, and nineteen on Thursday. How many did he eat in all?
The important part of the question is "IN ALL". We need to find a total, so we need to add.
500
In today's art class, only 18 of the 26 students were there. How many were absent?
We want to know how many people are missing from the class that usually has 26 people. We would subtract the 18 people who were there to see who was gone, and get the answer 8 people absent.
500
Your sister likes cranberries and your dad likes pumpkin pie. Your mom and her sister both like ice cream, but you like chocolate cake. If your grandmother wants to make all of the desserts to keep everyone happy, how many desserts is she going to make?
We will add together all of the types of dessert.
500
Licorice costs 5 cents per piece. Cotton candy is 20 cents each. How much licorice can you buy with a dime?
We don't need to know about the cotton candy.
500
Sarah ate twelve pretzels on Monday, thirteen on Tuesday, seventeen on Wednesday, twenty-four on Thursday, and nine on Friday. How many pretzels did she eat on Monday, Thursday, and Friday?
This is a tricky question. Make sure you are going slowly to add the right day's numbers together. Monday, Thursday, and Friday.