Drawing a Picture

 Helps students make a visual representation of the

problems
 Motivate students to begin the process of solving problems
 Works especially for students that may become bored by
the excess amount of words instead of numbers
 Make the problems easier to understand
 TRY THIS!!
May buys a 12 inch
candle. She lights it
everyday. Each day
it is 2 inches
shorter than the
day before. How tall
the candle will be
after 3 days? Therefore, the candle will
be 6 inches tall after 3
days.
A worm is trying to
escape from a well 10 ft
deep. The worm climbs 2
ft per day, but each
night it slides back 1 ft.
How many days will the
worm take to climb
outside the well?

There fore, the worm

reaches 10 ft and climbs
out of the well at the end
of the 9th day.
 Steps in Solving
Word Problems
1.Read the entire problem
2.Answer the question
3.Draw a picture
4.Solve the problem
5.Check your solution
Lets have
some

examples??
1. Marah is putting up a
tent for a family
reunion. The tent is
16 feet by 5 feet. Each
4-foot section of tent
needs a post except
the sides that are 5
feet. How many posts
will she need?

Therefore, Marah needs 10 post

for her to build the tent.
• At a candle store, the ratio of green candles to red
candles is 2:5. The store has 4,900 candles. How
many candles are red?

700 700 700 700 700 700 700

1,400 3,500
4,900

Therefore, there are 3,500 red

candles.
 YOUR
TURN!!
• Jane leaves New York on a cross-country car trip
at 7 a.m.. She averages 40 mi/h. Alice plans to
take exactly the same route, but does nit leave
until 8 a.m. She averages 50 mi/h. At what time
she pass Jane?

Jane
Alic
e

Therefore, Alice will pass Jane by 12 pm.

• Calvin and Shawn are 200 feet apart. A flagpole is
halfway between them. Both begin walking at the same
speed toward one another. Halfway to the flagpole, Calvin
realizes that he dropped his keys at his starting point. He
goes back, pick up his keys and walks toward the pole
again. How far are Calvin and Shawn from the flagpole
when they finally meet?

C S

100 100

200 FT
Therefore, Calvin and Shawn meet
50ft away from the flagpole.
• There are 3 fish tanks labeled X,Y and Z. Y weighs 6
times as much as X and twice as much as Z. If Z is
36 lbs. heavier than X, find the total weight of X, Y
and Z.
18 lbs.+ 108 lbs. + 54 lbs. = 1

Therefore, fish tanks

X,Y and Z weights 180
lbs.
“The more regularly that teachers make
problem solving part of the curriculum, the more
opportunities students will have to become
successful problem solvers.”
--Children Are Mathematical Problem Solvers