Multiplication Word Problems: The Groups Are Drawn for You

Both stories on this 3rd grade word-problems page multiply, and both show their groups. Ben sets out 3 rows of swans with 2 in each row, and under the sentence three small outlined boxes hold two swans apiece; Tom makes 4 groups of zebras with 4 in each, and four boxes hold four zebras each. The animals are drawn inside the boxes so the grouping is visible rather than described. Each card then gives a dot grid to work on, a dashed box for the number, and a handwriting line underneath for the answer written as a sentence.

Drawing the groups is what makes this the first multiplication page rather than a test. A child who cannot yet reach for 3 times 2 can count the swans, and in counting them can see why the numbers in the story are a count of groups and a count inside each group, which is the whole idea the notation stands for. The two stories use different words for the same structure, rows in one and groups in the other, so the child learns that a row of a picture and a group of a story are the same thing. The answer sentence matters as much as the box: writing there are 6 swans says what the number counts.

Print the PDF free and ask for the multiplication sentence to be written on the dot grid beside the counting, so the picture and the symbols end up next to one another. Products here stay small enough for the picture to fit on the card. The sharing and the making groups pages take the same layout into division, and the two ways page puts both kinds of division on one sheet. The mixed problems page is the last of the family, where the child has to decide which operation a story wants before starting.