LightMySky

Early Word Problems

Solve one-step word problems involving addition and subtraction to 20, including missing-number problems

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What a learner can do afterwards

  • Solve 'I have 12 sweets and eat 4, how many left?'
  • Solve missing number: 7 = [ ] – 9
  • Solve problems using concrete objects and pictorial representations

The lesson

You already know how to solve word problems using adding and subtracting. Now you will find a missing number too.

Try it together

Mia has 12 apples and eats 4. How many apples are left? Twelve take away four is eight.

Sometimes the missing number comes first in the problem. Read slowly and find what you already know.

0123456789101112+7
Start at 5 and hop to 12. That is 7 hops.
Good to know

Check your answer by putting it back in the problem. If it works, you found the right number.

Find the missing number by reading carefully and checking your answer.

Watch it

Where it sits

Where this leads

Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.

Then practise

8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.

Early Word Problems · Mathematics, ages 5 to 7 · LightMySky