🔢 MathGrade 4Lesson 16
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Create Word Problems from Stories

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Learning Objectives

  • 1Identify the key numbers and relationships in a story or real-life situation
  • 2Write a clear word problem using numbers from a given story
  • 3Choose the correct operation to match the relationship described
  • 4Solve the word problem created and check the answer
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Mini Lesson

Writing your own word problems helps you understand how mathematics connects to real life. A good word problem takes a story or situation and turns it into a mathematical question that can be solved.

What Makes a Good Word Problem?

  • Context: who is involved and where the situation takes place.
  • Known numbers: the values given in the problem.
  • A question: what the reader needs to find — the unknown.

Matching the Operation to the Story

  • "How many altogether" or combining → Addition
  • "How many left" or removing → Subtraction
  • "How many groups" or "times as many" → Multiplication or Division
  • Key words guide the reader to the correct operation.

Structure of a Word Problem

  • Start with one or two context sentences that set the scene.
  • Include the known numbers naturally in the context.
  • End with a clear question sentence.
  • After writing, solve your own problem and check the answer.
Worked Example

Story: A library has 320 fiction books and gets 45 more.

How many books does the library have now?

Answer:320 + 45 = 365 books

Context: library and books. Known numbers: 320 and 45. Question: total books. Operation: addition (combining).

Word Problem TemplateWord Problem Template1. ContextWho / where / what is happening2. NumbersThe known values from the story3. Question ?The unknown to find
Story to Problem Conversion ExampleStory to ProblemStory8 teams, 11 players eachconvertProblemHow many players in total?solve8 x 11 = 88 players
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Tip: after writing your word problem, solve it yourself. If you cannot solve it, the problem may be missing a number or a clear question.

Vocabulary
Word problem
A math problem written in sentences using a story or situatione.g. My word problem is about a library.
Context
The real-life situation the problem is set ine.g. Sports, shopping, and cooking are common contexts.
Known
A number or fact already given in the probleme.g. The library starts with 320 books — that is known.
Unknown
The quantity the problem asks you to finde.g. The unknown is the total number of books now.
Operation
The math action — add, subtract, multiply, or divide — needed to solvee.g. My problem needs the addition operation.
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← Lesson 15: Apply Math to Real ContextsLesson 17: Identify and Compare Fractions →