Here is a colorful, valuable resource for their math folders. My students keep this taped in their notebooks or folders and refer to it when solving those TOUGH multi-step word problems. In order to solve they need to remember the colors of a rainbow: ROY-G-BV. Each color stands for a step they will take to solve the problem. For example, RED: Who is the character? ORANGE: What is their problem? YELLOW: What do you know? Make a chart for this information. GREEN: How will you solve? What operations will you use? BLUE: Draw a picture and solve. VIOLET: Does your answer make sense? If they remember all these colors and what they stand for they will be more successful in understanding how to solve the problem.