KS2

Solving maths problems

Part ofMathematics and NumeracyProblem solvingYear 4

How to solve maths problems

Maths problems are usually written in words and often have more than one step.

You might not be able to work them out in your head.

You need to work in steps to find the answer:

A boy in a wheelchair thinking about maths problems.

Step 1 - Read through the problem carefully to work out how to solve the problem.

Step 2 - Find out what answer the problem is asking for.

Step 3 - Work out the calculation for the first step of the problem.

Step 4 - Work out the calculation for the second step of the problem.

Step 5 - Work out the final answer and check it makes sense.

A boy in a wheelchair thinking about maths problems.

Activity: How to solve maths problems

Complete this interactive activity to learn how to solve maths problems. Then put your knowledge to the test.

How to solve maths problems

Let's look at using these steps to solve this problem:

40 children are inside at after school club. Half of those children go outside to play. Then 9 more go outside.

How many children are left inside?

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Image caption,
Step 1
Read through the problem.
Image caption,
This problem says "40 children are inside at after school club. Half of those children go outside to play. Then 9 more go outside. How many children are left inside?"
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Step 2
Find out what the problem is asking.
Image caption,
This problem is asking how many children are left inside at after school club.
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Step 3
Work out the calculation for the first step of the problem.
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First, half of the children go out to play. Half of 40 is 20.
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Step 4
Work out the calculation for the next step of the problem.
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9 more children went outside to play. There were 20 children left inside at after school club after the first group left. Then you know 9 more children left. 20 - 9 = 11
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Step 5
Work out the final answer to check it makes sense.
Image caption,
11 children are left in the room. To check your work, use the inverse operation, which is addition. If 20 go outside, another 9 leave, and 11 stay, that equals 40 children. As 20 + 9 + 11 = 40, your answer is correct!

Example 1

An adult ticket priced at seven pounds. A child ticket priced at four pounds.

6 adults and 5 children go to the cinema. Each adult's ticket costs £7. Each child's ticket costs £4.

How much will the tickets cost altogether?

Example 2

3 bananas.

You have 3 bananas and then buy 3 more packs at the shop. Each pack contains 9 bananas.

When you get home you make a cake and use 5 bananas.

How many bananas do you have left?

Example 3

A table with three columns, the first column has different sizes of pizza, small, medium and large. In the second column there are images of two cheese types, cheddar and mozzarella. The third column has images of pizza toppings, ham, tuna, pepperoni, mushrooms and pepper.

At a restaurant, you can order different pizzas.

You can choose from 3 sizes of pizza - small, medium and large.

You can choose from 2 types of cheese - cheddar and mozzarella.

And there are 5 choices of topping - ham, tuna, peperoni, mushrooms and peppers.

You are only allowed one topping and one type of cheese.

How many different combinations of pizza can you have?

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