Word problems 4th grade

1. Write a multiplication sentence to each problem and solve. You can draw pictures to
help you.

a) Four children are playing tennis together. b) The Smith family has five
They all brought six balls. How many balls do members. Each member has
they have total? a small towel and a bath
towel. How many towels
hang in the bathroom?

c) The Jones family orders four pizzas to eat. d) A town has three post
Each pizza is sliced into four parts. How many offices. In each post office
pizza slices do they get? there are five
workers. How many workers
do the post offices have in
total?

Word problems with two operations

Mr. Johnson usually eats three meals a day. How many meals does he eat in a
normal week?

Again, we have the situation of EACH DAY the SAME thing happens.

7 days × 3 meals a day = _____ meals in a normal week.

This Friday he skipped breakfast. How many meals did he eat during this week?

Now one day is different. It is only ONE day though, so we just subtract the one meal
from the total.
day take the skipped
times meals
s away breakfast
7 × 3 − 1 = ___

In the following week, he ate three times on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and
four times on the rest of the days. How many meals did he eat during the
week?

Now we have the one kind of situation three times, and the other kind of situation four
times. We calculate those separately, and then add.

day meal rest of meal

times and times
s s the days s

3 × 3 + 4 × 4 = ___

Example problems

1. Fill in the numbers to the number sentences for each problem, and solve. For the
last problems, write the number sentence yourself. You can write words above the
numbers to describe the numbers. You can also draw pictures to help you!
a) Mommy bought four egg cartons, and each had six eggs. Two of the eggs were
bad. How many good eggs did Mommy get?
eggs
egg take
times in each bad ones
cartons away
one
_________ × _________ − ________ =

b) Johnson's ordered 4 pizzas again, sliced into four pieces each. This time the dog
ate one piece. How many pieces did the people eat?
number of pieces in take what the
times
pizzas each away dog ate
________ × _______ − _______ =