Create your own Wednesday Word Problem

Wednesday Word Problems have been a staple in my classroom since the first year I started teaching.

It is not my original idea but I love  the way that we have made it a routine and the kids really look forward to doing them every week. They even get a smartie if they figure it out on their own…which that tiny little sugar rush really gets them pumped up for (what I think) a set of difficult word problems.

Students even get to a point in the year where they are able to teach the word problems to each other. Sitting back and watching 5 and 6 year-olds take charge of their learning is a pretty powerful moment.

While I LOVE Wednesday Word problems…I do feel like we needed to take it a step further and have the kids create their own.

This really showed me if students understood what they were actually doing in their word problems and if they were using the correct verbiage.

This one “There is ten elephants, 4 were taken away. How many elephants are left?”.

She gets it…

If you are a K teacher, I’m sure you can read this…but just in case. “There were 6 apples. 3 of them were taken away. How many apples are left?”.

Here is one where they are showing addition. My teacher heart just about burst when I was reading through these word problems!

“I have 6 ice cream, my friend gave me 3 more. How many are there all together?”.

The way the problem is written, the picture, plugging in the numbers and then answering correctly…holy moly! This was by far the most powerful way to let students do their Word Problems this time of the year.

One more…

I would say he understands that 5 can be represented more than one way <3

Now my goal (every other week) is to have students write and create their own Wednesday Word Problem and then start having their peers solve it on whiteboards. I know that they wouldn’t have been as successful writing these word problems and using the correct math terms if we hadn’t made an effort every single week to do these problems. I can really see if paying off. You can always differentiate this activity by giving students words to use (take away, add, each, equal…) without them having to come up with it on their own. You can also challenge them by giving them specific numbers to work with. Or you can do what I did and let them create their own Wednesday Word Problem to see what they know. This was so telling for me. I know what students can be pushed a little further and which students still need a little extra help with problem solving.

If you don’t already do Wednesday Word Problems (or word problems in general) I highly recommend you start! This is my bundle for the whole year or you can just get them 2 months at a time to see how your students do with them.

If you think your kids are ready for this step, you can try it. Just click here or the picture below.

Happy solving!