Word Problems with Extra Information

Grade level

Grades 2–3

Time

About 20 minutes

Topic

Math word problems

Answer key

Yes, page 2 of the PDF

Kids practice

Reading word problems, Choosing the operation, Showing work, Multi-step reasoning

What kids do

“Cross out the number you don’t need. Then solve the problem.”

Printed on the sheet:

1. 1 Lily has 8 red pens, 5 blue pens and 3 pencils. How many pens does she have?
2. 2 A yellow bus has 8 windows on each side. 26 kids get on at the first stop and
3. 9 kids get on at the second stop. How many kids are on the bus?
4. 3 Max is 8 years old. He has 34 baseball cards and gives 12 to his sister. How many cards does Max have now?
5. 4 A shop sold 45 muffins and 30 cookies on Monday, and 28 muffins on
6. Tuesday. How many muffins did it sell in all?
7. 5 Nora walked 3 dogs for 20 minutes each. She was paid $5 for each dog. How much was she paid?
8. 6 There are 6 rows of chairs with 5 chairs in each row. 4 of the chairs are blue.

Words on this sheet

penskidscardsmuffinschairs

Teacher tip

Ask kids to explain why the crossed-out number doesn’t matter to the question.

How to use it

• Let kids act out a problem or draw it before they write a number sentence.
• Have partners solve the same problem two ways and compare.
• Do the first problem together under a document camera, then let kids finish on their own.

Watch for

Answers with no unit. Ask “Twelve what?”

Talk about it

• Which words in the story tell you what to do?
• Which problem was the hardest? What made it hard?

Take it further

Pick one problem and change one number. How does the answer change?

US Letter, prints well in black and white. Free for home and classroom use: print as many copies as you need.