We're Diving into Common Core Math!

Once a week, my third graders get to dabble with some common core lessons. Since our school will fully implement Common Core Standards for the 2013-2014 school year, we are adding in some of it now to get used to it. This week we worked with 3.OA.8. (Solve two-step word problems using the four operations.)

To introduce this concept, we first used manipulatives to solve a 2-step word problem, getting our kiddos used to the idea of solving a word problem that requires more than just adding/subtracting two numbers. The next day, we used only a hundreds chart to help us solve word problems. Surprisingly, I enjoyed using the hundreds chart much more than the manipulatives because my kiddos seemed much more focused and got the concept better.On the third day, I took a bag and filled it with papers, each with a different two-step word problem on it. My team and I had decided that working with strictly two-digit numbers would better fit the needs of our students and not overwhelm them with large numbers, so that's what we did. I selected a student to pull a word problem out of the bag and placed it under the document camera (they loved being able to do this!). Obviously we didn't get to all of these in one day, but it was nice to work through several problems together and discuss what my students were thinking and how we should "attack the problem."

Here are some examples of word problems we used:
A grocery store owner had 57 green apples and 32 red apples. On Monday he sold 28 apples. How many apples did the grocery store owner have left?


On Saturday Betty’s Bakery had 75 chocolate muffins for sale. 25 chocolate muffins were sold in the morning and 31 were sold in the afternoon. How many chocolate muffins were left?


Peter had 79 marbles. He gave 17 marbles to his brother and 14 to his best friend. How many marbles did Peter have left?



After spending $26.00 on a shirt and $59.00 on a pair of shoes, Tom had $10.00 left in his wallet. How much money did Tom have to begin with?



Suzy has 88 books to pack into boxes. On Monday she packed 35 books, and on Tuesday she packed 21 books. How many more boxes does Suzy need to pack into boxes?


James wants to buy a soccer ball worth $25.00 and a skateboard that costs $47.00. If he only has $50.00, how much more money does James need?


Maria and Nikki picked tomatoes in their vegetable garden. Maria picked 29 tomatoes and Nikki picked 48. If they used 15 tomatoes to make pasta sauce how many did they have left?
 

A truck driver needed to deliver 60 sacks of flour. He delivered 25 sacks to a shop on Main Street and 18 sacks to a shop on First Avenue. How many more sacks does he still need to deliver?