Section C: Practice Problems Represent and Solve Story Problems

Section Summary

Details

In this section, we solved many different kinds of story problems. We used diagrams and equations to make sense of problems.

Jada started with some seeds. Then she won 28 seeds from Elena. Now she has 65 seeds.
How many seeds did Jada have at the start?

Diagram. One rectangle partitioned into 2 parts. One part, labeled blank, total length question mark. Other part, labeled blank, total length, 28. Total length of rectangle, 65.

We shared how we make sense of story problems, how we solve them, and what we learned from each other.

Problem 1 (Lesson 12)

There are some comic books on the shelf.
Mai puts 18 more comic books on the shelf.
Now there are 47 comic books on the shelf.
How many comic books were on the shelf?

  1. Draw a diagram representing the situation.

  2. How many comic books are on the shelf now? Explain or show your thinking.

Problem 2 (Lesson 13)

There are 83 people on the stairs. 47 of them are going up and some of them are coming down.

  1. Explain why the tape diagram shows the story.

    Diagram. One rectangle partitioned into 2 parts. 1 part, labeled going up, total length, 47. Other part, labeled going down, total length, question mark. Total length, 83.

  2. How many people are coming down the stairs? Explain or show your reasoning.

Problem 3 (Lesson 14)

Lin read 25 pages of a book. Clare was reading the same book. Lin read 19 fewer pages of the book than Clare.

  1. Draw a diagram representing the situation.

  2. Write an equation using a question mark for the unknown value.

  3. How many pages did Clare read? Explain or show your reasoning.

Problem 4 (Lesson 15)

  1. At a lake, there are 42 people swimming. Then 25 more people go to swim in the lake. How many people are swimming in the lake? Explain or show your reasoning.

  2. Now there are 18 fewer people swimming in the lake than there are playing on the beach. How many people are playing on the beach? Explain or show your reasoning.

Problem 5 (Exploration)

Here is a tape diagram.

Diagram. Two rectangles of equal length. Rectangle on top, shaded, total length, 73. Rectangle on bottom, partitioned into two parts. First part shaded, total length, 28. Second part has dashed outline, total length, question mark.

  1. Write a story problem that could be represented by the tape diagram.

  2. Label the tape diagram to match your story.

  3. Solve your story problem.

Problem 6 (Exploration)

  1. Write a story problem that this tape diagram could represent.

    Diagram. One rectangle partitioned into 2 parts. one part, labeled, blank and total length, blank. Other part, labeled, blank and total length, blank. total length of rectangle, question mark. 

  2. Fill in the tape diagram with the information from your story.

  3. Solve your story problem.