Math Problem Solving Task Cards - 7 Problem Solving Strategies for Grades 3 - 4
- PDF
Description
Do your students struggle to solve word problems? Do you struggle to know how to help? This set of task cards is like problem solving "professional development"--everything you need to teach 7 key word problem solving strategies.
This resource came to be because for years I felt that I did not invest enough time in explicitly teaching problem solving strategies. I gave my students a TON of word problems…but I think I made too many assumptions that they had a decent “toolbox” of strategies to pull from.
I vowed to be better…and to start off by modeling and clearly teaching these 7 strategies—in hopes that students would begin to internalize them and draw upon them in future problems. These problems are a fantastic way to work on the Standards for Mathematical Practice!
*Make a list
*Guess and check
*Use objects to model
*Make a table
*Find a pattern
*Work backward
*Draw a picture
- Each of the seven strategies listed above is given 5 “teaching” problems. Whether you use these as whole class problem solving experiences, partner problem solving tasks, or individual work, my hope is that you will spend time talking about each strategy and model with the given problems so students can see how YOU use the strategy in different contexts.
- At the end of the resource are 14 problems that are “unlabeled” and are perfect for independent practice where students select an appropriate strategy to use (and many different strategies may work!) to solve the problem and organize their work. This makes students really think and draw upon what they have learned without being coached.
- Because I want you to have a ton of flexibility, I have included the cards in 3 different sizes…1/4 page task cards, 1/2 page task cards, and full page problems.
- AND NOW FULL DIGITAL ACCESS AS WELL!
I did this so you can choose to use at stations—or you can use the full page to project as you talk about the problems and explicitly teach the strategies. I tend to use a combination of digital access, task cards, and the full page version—depending on what I am trying to accomplish.
Although the cards are made in color (each strategy is a different one), I tried to keep the color ink to a minimum—and you can always print them in black and white on colored card stock if you do not have color printing options.
Note...it was hard to determine how many pages to include as the problems appear in 3 sizes. There are 49 different problems--7 each of 7 strategies. Hope this helps!
Don't want the print version and only want digital access?
GOOGLE EDITION Problem Solving Task Cards
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Want to see some other word problem resources? Here is just a sampling of the many resources in my store!
Multi-Step Word Problems for Grades 3/4
Word Problem Bundled Set for Grades 4/5
Word Problem Bundled Set for Grades 3/4
Seasonal Word Problem bundle (individual sets also available)
"Amazing Facts" Task Card Bundle (individual sets also available)
CGI Word Problem Bundle (individual sets also available)
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All rights reserved by ©The Teacher Studio. Purchase of this problem set entitles the purchaser the right to reproduce the pages in limited quantities for single classroom use only. Duplication for an entire school, an entire school system, or commercial purposes is strictly forbidden without written permission from the author at fourthgradestudio@gmail.com. Additional licenses are available at a reduced price.
