Word problems are meant to be tricky. Little by little, we can make them harder and try to stump the students.
But word problems give us one of the best answers to the question, “Why do I need to learn math?”
We open up word problems that are appropriate for their age, read them aloud, and ask the students, How would you tell?

I love to tell students upfront. It might be tricky/challenging, but it's fun for sure. Solve it and you win. Adding the aspect of a game always works.

When solving a word problem, children should read the task carefully to make sure they understand it. You can help them understand it better by discussing the word problem together. Look for unfamiliar words and words not related to math, which are deliberately designed to confuse them.

Word problems help children learn math as a part of the real world. And they can help support fundamental math theories and processes. Here at Practithink, you’ll find many exercises to help students master word problems skills, and be ready for the next test in next to no time.

Make sure that students read the word problem at least twice. There might be situations when the question is confusing. Higher-level word problems might include irrelevant information. That’s part of the learning.
If students are stumped, you can help them with those parts.

Ask students to be thorough they should take their time and understand completely what the problem is about. They can also highlight keywords, cross out what seems to be irrelevant, and take notes. Drawing is a good way to approach word problems: they can help the students see the problem clearly and then solve it.

Another milestone that will help students solve word problems is keywords. Ever wondered why they’re called word problems? It’s because you don’t subtract or add stuff. You give, spend, or donate. And instead of something being multiplied by 2, you see words like twice, double, or two times. Below you’ll find a short summary of some of the most common keywords you can find in a word problem.

Remember: Even though identifying keywords is an important part of math problems, students should understand the entire problem they are given, and not solely rely on keywords. Such keywords tables do not always work, and sometimes they confuse the students. Let’s look at an example:
“There are 36 cupcakes in each box. Mom ordered 10 boxes for a birthday party. How many cupcakes in total did she order?”
You can find a keyword for addition in this question: that word is “total”. But in this word problem, it does not lead to the right solution. This is where you can encourage students to think carefully and not entirely rely on keywords.

As you read the word problem, you need to turn them into math sentences. You can leave out all the information that is irrelevant to the question. You may sometimes find some of the numbers irrelevant, too. So, gather all the information together and check if it makes sense. If you hesitate, you can always double-check!

Children might get multistep word problems that require solving several math operations. They should be careful not to skip or miss a step. Help the children check to see if their answer makes sense.
Ask the students to write the full answer when solving the word problem. So, if the question is, "How many pairs of shoes did Lana buy from the shop?" don’t just write "3". The full answer to the problem is "Lana bought 3 pairs of shoes" or “3 pairs of shoes.”

The most important strategy when solving math word problems is to think critically about the story and the question.

We recommend the following methods to help students:

Talk. Ask them to tell the problem in their very own words. Be patient, it might take time.
Think. Start from the general understanding of each problem. “Do you think you should add or subtract the numbers? What makes you think so?”
Draw. Ask them to visualize word problems: “Simply draw what you read and understand.”
Encourage. Unlike dry math sentences like 3 x 8 - 20 =?, wrong answers in word problems might be used as a fun way to learn and encourage children to keep trying to solve it.
Each block has 12 and a half houses or there are 235 people in the car, or a bird flies faster than a rocket.
Laughing together helps reset students' minds.

The first thing that we need to find is in the question. We count pages.

Let’s carefully identify keywords.
“and” might stand here for addition, “left” for subtraction.

Let’s skip all the information that’s irrelevant to the question:
Names, objects, time - bye bye. Illustrations. Even though there are numbers connected to illustrations, they are not a part of the question. So, off they go, too.

Simplifying the problem looks like this: The book has 120 pages. The boy has read 24 and 47 pages.
In other words: Out of 120 pages, he read 24 + 47.
This can be easily turned into, Out of 120 pages, 71 are read.

The question of this problem was: How many pages are left to be read?

“Left” is a keyword giving us a hint that we need to subtract.

The math sentence turns out to be 120 - 71...
Now, all you need to do is just math.

All word problems require taking the time and understanding the question clearly. Children won't understand whether their answer is right or not if they don't understand the question.
So, make notes together, highlight the necessary information, and find the correct answer after having all the details you need. And always go back to the word problem when you get the solution. Make sure that you answered the question that was asked.

There are tons of word problems for grades from Kindergarten to 5 available here:

Word problems catalog

Or you can download low-cost or FREE printable worksheets for word problem by visiting our marketplace:

Word problem worksheets