Multi-Step Problem Solving
With teacher support, make sense of multi-step problems involving larger numbers or mixed operations by breaking them into parts, choosing strategies, and checking answers for reasonableness — children at this stage are developing the habit with guidance; independent strategy evaluation comes later
What a learner can do afterwards
- Break a two-step word problem within 1000 into sub-problems and solve each part
- Estimate an answer before calculating to set a reasonableness benchmark
- Check an answer using a different method or inverse operation and revise if needed
1 · Read
Some maths problems ask you to do more than one thing, like working out how many muffins are left after a sale. First you solve one part, then you use that answer to solve the next part. Breaking a big problem into small steps makes it much easier.
A baker makes 4 trays of 9 muffins, then sells 15 muffins. Step 1: 4 x 9 = 36 muffins made. Step 2: 36 - 15 = 21 muffins left. Before working it out, the baker guessed about 20 would be left. The real answer, 21, is close to that guess, so it makes sense.
Once you have an answer, check it a different way. If you added two numbers, try subtracting one back off. If your check does not match, look for your mistake and try again. You can also round to estimate first. Round each number to the nearer hundred: 840 rounds to 800 and 410 rounds to 400, so 800 minus 400 is about 400.
Break the problem into steps, guess first, then check your answer a different way to be sure it makes sense.
The rewritten readings were written for this dataset.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
17 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.