How to use the pack
- Pick the sheet for your child’s grade, then glance at the two sample problems listed with it. If they look too easy or too hard, print the sheet a grade up or down. Children are often ahead in one topic and behind in another.
- Keep it short. One sheet, or half of one, during the quiet stretch before a meal or on the morning after is plenty. A few problems done with a smile do more than a full page done under protest.
- Read the problems aloud for younger children. In kindergarten and 1st grade the goal is the math, not decoding the story, so it is fine for you to do the reading.
- Ask “what is happening?” before “what is the answer?”. Retelling the story in their own words helps children pick the right operation, which is the real skill in a word problem.
- Check with the key together. When an answer is off, look at the number sentence on page 2 and ask your child where their thinking split from it, rather than just marking it wrong.
- Cousins of different ages can work side by side: print a kindergarten sheet and a 4th grade sheet, and let the older child read the younger one’s questions aloud.
Math around the holiday table
The holiday itself is full of math you can point out without a worksheet. A younger child can count the forks while setting the table, or count how many people are coming and fetch that many napkins. A 3rd grader can work out how many plates fit in rows on the table, which is the same array thinking as the place-setting problems on their sheet.
In the kitchen, a recipe is a fractions lesson. Ask a 4th or 5th grader how much flour you would need for half a batch or for a double batch, or how many slices are left when a pie cut into eight has had three taken. While a parade is on, a 2nd grader can keep a tally of the bands and balloons and add the totals at the end.
Some families keep a gratitude list at the table, with each person saying one thing they are thankful for. A younger child can count the entries, and an older one can sort them into groups and compare the counts. None of this needs paper, and it shows children that math is part of an ordinary family day.
About these worksheets
Tutorsaurus wrote these sheets. The numbers come from small programs that follow each grade’s Common Core standard, and the same code works out every answer, so the key always matches the problems. Our tests recompute every answer again before the PDFs are published. These worksheets are not an official curriculum, and your child’s school may teach the topics in a different order.