In this activity, you're going to practice making a word family using addition facts and subtraction facts. You will use a sharpened pencil, a sheet of heavy paper, and a marker.

Now, here is a word problem that we have to make a word family for:

Jessica has sharpened and unsharpened pencils. She has 5 sharpened pencils. She has 8 unsharpened pencils. How many pencils does she have in all?

How do you solve this word problem? To do this, you have to answer three important questions:

1. What word tells about all the things in this problem?

2. What words do we write for the lesser (smaller) numbers?

3. What do we write for all the things?

Your answers to these questions will help you make a word family.

Let's begin. Get the bond paper and the marker. Use the sharpened pencil as an arrow. Place the pencil in the middle of the paper. Make sure it points to the right. Using your marker, put your answer to the first question below the arrow. What's your answer? It's "pencils." Part of your word family will look like this:­

Next, answer the second question. What's your answer? The lesser numbers are 5 and 8. Put these lesser numbers above the arrow. It will look like this:

Then answer the last question. What's your answer? You write "all" for all the pencils.

Write "all" at the end of the arrow. It will look like this:

That's your word family. But how do we find the missing number? Do we add or subtract? Since the missing number is at the end of the arrow, it's the greatest (larger) number. We add and find the missing number. So we make an addition fact:

5 + 8 = 13. Jessica has 13 pencils in all.

Now, it's your turn to solve a word problem that asks for the difference.

Here's your word problem:

You bought a dictionary that costs $12. You also bought a lampshade for $32. What is the difference in the price of these items?

Here are the questions that might help you:

1. What word tells what you are looking for in this problem?

2. Which item is the greater number?

3. Which item is the lesser number?

Now begin solving the problem. Use the sharpened pencil as your arrow. Have fun!

Ready to move on to the next lesson?
 Solving Classification Word Problems with Multiplication