Multiplication word problems

This is a complete lesson for third grade with teaching & word problems with the aim of teaching children some basics about multiplication word problems. The basic idea is that we have groups of same size, and children need to just recognize those groups, whether they be towels, pizza slices, balls, or whatever. The word problems in the lesson also involve addition and subtraction so that students need to think, and not apply the operation at hand (multiplication) without even reading the problem.

7 7 7 7	There are seven rocks in each box. That is a total of 4 × 7 = 28 rocks.	5 5 5	Each house has five people living in it. How many people live in the houses? 3 × 5 = 15 people.
The SAME amount of something IN EACH thing is often solved by multiplying.

Example problems

1. Write a multiplication sentence to each problem and solve. You can draw pictures to help you.

a) Four children are playing tennis together. They all brought six balls. How many balls do they have total?

b) The Smith family has five members. Each member has a small towel and a bath towel. How many towels hang in the bathroom?

c) The Jones family orders four pizzas to eat. Each pizza is sliced into four parts. How many pizza slices do they get?

d) A town has three post offices. In each post office there are five
workers. How many workers do the post offices have in total?

Word problems with two operations

Mr. Johnson usually eats three meals a day. How many meals does he eat in a normal week?

Again, we have the situation of EACH DAY the SAME thing happens.

7 days × 3 meals a day = _____ meals in a normal week.

This Friday he skipped breakfast. How many meals did he eat during this week?

Now one day is different. It is only ONE day though, so we just subtract the one meal from the total.

days	times	meals	take away	the skipped breakfast
7	×	3	−	1	=	______

In the following week, he ate three times on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and four times on the rest of the days. How many meals did he eat during the week?

Now we have the one kind of situation three times, and the other kind of situation four times. We calculate those separately, and then add.

days	times	meals	and	rest of the days	times	meals
3	×	3	+	4	×	4	=	______

Example problems

1. Fill in the numbers to the number sentences for each problem, and solve. For the last problems, write the number sentence yourself. You can write words above the numbers to describe the numbers. You can also draw pictures to help you!

a. Mommy bought four egg cartons, and each had six eggs. Two of the eggs were bad. How many good eggs did Mommy get?

egg cartons	times	eggs in each	take away	bad ones
	×		−		=

b. Johnson's ordered 4 pizzas again, sliced into four pieces each. This time the dog ate one piece. How many pieces did the people eat?

number of pizzas	times	pieces in each	take away	what the dog ate
	×		−		=

c. Joe has three friends who all have five toy cars, and then two friends who only have two cars. How many cars do Joe's friends have?

friends with 5 cars	times	5 cars	and	friends with 2 cars	times	2 cars
	×		+		×		=

g. On a family dinner table there are two plates for everybody, and only one plate for little Hannah. 10 people and Hannah came to the dinner . How many plates were on the table?

h. There are four horses, and three people. How many feet are there total?

Math Lessons menu

Place Value Grade 1 Using a 100-bead abacus in elementary math Teaching tens and ones Practicing with two-digit numbers Counting in groups of ten Skip-counting practice (0-100) Comparing 2-digit numbers Cents and dimes Grade 2 Three-digit numbers Comparing 3-digit numbers Grade 3 Place value with thousands Comparing 4-digit numbers Rounding & estimating Rounding to the nearest 100 Grade 4 Place value - big numbers	Add & subtract lessons Grade 1 Missing addend concept (0-10) Addition facts when the sum is 6 Addition & subtraction connection Grade 2 Fact families & basic addition/subtraction facts Sums that go over over the next ten Add/subtract whole tens (0-100) Add a 2-digit number and a single-digit number mentally Add 2-digit numbers mentally Regrouping in addition Regrouping twice in addition Regrouping or borrowing in subtraction Grade 3 Mental subtraction strategies Rounding & estimating	Multiplication Grade 3 Multiplication concept as repeated addition Multiplication on number line Commutative Multiply by zero Word problems Order of operations Structured drill for multiplication tables Drilling tables of 2, 3, 5, or 10 Drilling tables of 4, 11, 9 Grade 4 Multiplying by whole tens & hundreds Distributive property Partial products - the easy way Partial products - video lesson Multiplication algorithm Multiplication Algorithm — Two-Digit Multiplier Scales problems - video lesson Estimation when multiplying
Division Grade 3 Division as making groups Division/multiplication connection Division is repeated subtraction Zero in division Division that is not exact (remainder) Divisibility Grade 4 How to teach long division Long division as repeated subtraction Why long division works Zero in dividend Remainder & long division Two-digit divisor Review of division topics Divisibility Divisibility within 0-1000 Divisibility rules Prime factorization 1 Prime factorization 2 Sieve of Eratosthenes	Fraction Lessons Understanding fractions Finding fractional parts with division Mixed numbers Fractions to mixed numbers and vv. Adding like fractions Equivalent fractions Adding unlike fractions 1 Adding unlike fractions 2: Finding the common denominator Adding mixed numbers Subtracting mixed numbers Subtracting mixed numbers 2 Measuring in inches Comparing fractions Simplifying fractions Multiply fractions by whole numbers Multiply fractions by fractions Multiplication and area Simplify before multiplying Dividing fractions by whole numbers Dividing fractions: fitting the divisor Dividing fractions: reciprocal numbers Dividing fractions: using the shortcut	Geometry Lessons Lines, rays, and angles Measuring angles Parallel & perpendicular Acute, obtuse, and right triangles Angle sum of a triangle Equilateral & isosceles triangles Circles Symmetry Altitude of a triangle Polygons Perimeter Area of rectangles Area of right triangles Area of parallelograms Area of triangles Area versus Perimeter Angles in Polygons (PDF) Review: Area of Polygons (PDF) Surface Area (PDF)
Decimals Lessons Decimals videos Decimals (1 decimal digit) Decimal place value (1 decimal digit) Decimals (2 decimal digits) Decimal place value (2 decimal digits) Decimals (3 decimal digits) Add & subtract (1 decimal digit) Add & subtract (2 decimal digits) Add and subtract decimals — practice Comparing decimals Multiply a decimal by a whole number Multiply decimals by decimals Divide decimals—mental math Divide decimals by decimals Multiply and divide decimals by 10, 100, and 1000 Decimals review lesson	Percents Lessons How to teach proportions Percent - the basic concept Percentage of a number—mental math How to calculate a percentage of a number How to calculate percentages Basics of percent of change	General Four habits of highly effective math teaching Why are math word problems SO difficult for children? Hint: it has to do with a "recipe" that many math lessons follow. The do's and don'ts of teaching problem solving in math Advice on how you can teach problem solving in elementary, middle, and high school math. How to set up algebraic equations to match word problems Students often have problems setting up an equation for a word problem in algebra. To do that, they need to see the RELATIONSHIP between the different quantities in the problem. This article explains some of those relationships. Seven reasons behind math anxiety and how to prevent it Mental math "mathemagic" with Arthur Benjamin (video) Keeping math skills sharp in the summer Geometric vanish puzzles Science resources Short reviews of the various science resources and curricula I have used with my own children.