Wednesday Word Problem

One of the most important things I do in my classroom is Wednesday Word Problems. The students have a love/hate relationship with these. They love them because if they get the answer correct and can show me HOW they got their answer, then they get an entire Smartie (And no they don’t get one if they get it incorrect. You would be amazed at how hard they try the next week to earn it…If the answer is wrong but their drawing and counting is correct, I let them re-explain it and re-write the number to earn it.). I also let them do their problems on the carpet with a clipboard. Any reason to snap the clip on the clipboard is a win in their books.

The problems aren’t easy either…that is why they “hate” (hate is a strong word but you get what I mean) them. They are challenging and they get harder through the year. I also have them hunt for the important information in the problems. They have to decipher what is important in a sentence like “Michael had 4 bananas and Carol had 2 apples.” if the names and items are important. In a problem like that, I would have them circle 4 and 2 because that’s all the information they need to solve the problem.

Math vocabulary also plays an important role in the Wednesday Word Problems. As we solve the problems, students have to know what a pair is or positional words. Common Core is oozing all over these problems. Another K teacher went to a Common Core training this summer and reported back that the trainer said that if these students can solve these problems by the end of the year then they are hitting the targets and then some.

I could go on and on about how valuable they have been in the classroom. I don’t go a Wednesday without doing one because I value it as an integral part of my math instruction. We don’t have a Wednesday without it.

Wednesday Word Problems were the first item I put up on TpT and they have been a huge hit. However, I could not look at the boring white background and plain b&w images for the front cover.

Something had to be done…