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Opening your daily math lesson with a Math Word Problem of the Day is an excellent way to set the stage for learning. We all know that word problems are difficult for young learners to grasp, even when the mathematical operation portion of the problem is basic. Incorporate these third grade math word problems one day at a time at the start of your math block to build confidence, critical thinking skills, and a learning community. Students will get used to reading slowly for meaning, while also identifying key information. Encourage students to write out equations and draw pictures to explain their thinking, since this helps them see the light when they are stuck!
Topics covered include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, mixed operation, fractions, area and perimeter, and measurement. All you need to do is post one of these third grade math word problems on your whiteboard or projector screen, then let kids take it from there.
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50 Third Grade Math Word Problems
1. Gage went shopping and bought 19 cupcakes, 18 apple pies, and 47 glazed donuts. How many items did he buy altogether?
2. A shelter is taking care of 384 cats. 176 more arrive. How many cats are in the shelter now?
3. Gabby has 42 books on her bookshelf. Her dad gives her 23 more for her birthday. How many books does Gabby have now?
4. There were 823 people attending a soccer game after 37 people left. How many people were at the game before the people left?
5. Mr. Washington has 44 pencils. He found 37 pencils inside of the cubbies and opened a new pack of 60 pencils. How many pencils does Mr. Washington have in all?
6. Jeff plays Minecraft. On Monday he played for 67 minutes. On Tuesday he played for 32 minutes, and on Wednesday he played for 43 minutes. How many total minutes did Jeff play during the week?
7. Smith Elementary School has 286 boys and 241 girls. What is the total number of students that attend Smith Elementary?
8. Ashley rides her bike to school every day. The ride from her house to her school takes 21 minutes. If she has already been biking for 17 minutes, how much longer does she have to ride before she arrives at school?
10. A school collects money for T-shirts. Third graders collected $327. Fourth graders collected 138 fewer dollars. How much money did fourth graders collect?
11. Hayden has 610 stickers. There are 250 in a white box and some in a yellow box. How many are in the yellow box?
12. The table shows students’ class points. Which two students’ scores have a difference of 15 points?
13. Ms. Brady has 356 tomato plants. She sells 91 of the plants and gives 49 of the plants away. How many tomato plants does Ms. Brady have left?
14. David’s mom buys apples for his class. There are 5 rows of 4 green apples. There is 1 row of 4 red apples. Fill in the blanks to complete the expressions.
15. A box of chocolates has 14 rows. There are 6 pieces of chocolate in each row. How many pieces of chocolate are in the box?
16. Christy and Jan are playing a card game. Christy has 4 cards and Jan has 4 times as many cards. How many cards do they have together?
17. Emerson is in charge of collecting the basketballs at the end of gym class. There are 6 bins, and 7 basketballs can fit in each bin. How many basketballs are there if each bin is full?
18. Luz had two pages of homework. Each page had five problems on it. How many total problems did she have to complete?
19. Keyanna was drawing on scrap paper. She could fit seven drawings on each page. If she has three pieces of paper, how many drawings can she make?
21. Mrs. Smith is getting her classroom ready for the first day of school. She has 25 students in her class. She wants 5 students to sit at every table. How many tables will she need?
22. Alex is organizing his school supplies. He has 141 index cards. He wants to split them into 3 piles. How many cards will each pile get?
23. Mrs. Blackley’s class plays a review game. The class earns 5 points every time they answer a question correctly. On Monday, the class earns 50 points playing the game. How many questions did the class answer correctly?
24. Maria has 56 gummy bears. She will give all the gummy bears to 8 of her friends. Each friend will get the same number. How many gummy bears will each friend receive?
25. Daniel has 63 coins and 9 piggy banks. If each piggy bank has the same number of coins, how many coins are in each piggy bank?
26. Leslie has 32 dolls in 4 baskets. Each basket has the same number of dolls. How many dolls are in each basket?
27. Levi has 10 fish in his fish tank. 4 fish are goldfish and the rest are minnows. What fraction of the fish are goldfish?
28. Melanie has 8 colored pencils. 3 are green, 2 are yellow, and 3 are blue. What fraction of the pencils are blue?
29. Hannah has a bag of M&M’s. There are 24 M&M’s in the bag. 8 are red, 6 are green, 7 are yellow, and 3 are brown. What fraction of the M&M’s are brown?
30. Mr. Brown needs to order pizza for 18 students. He wants each student to have ¼ of a pizza. How many pizzas should he order?
31. The class took a survey about favorite animals. ¼ of students chose lions as their favorite animal, and ½ of the students chose elephants. The other students chose either sharks or whales. Partition a circle graph to show these results.
32. John wanted a chocolate cake for his birthday. After blowing out the candles, he cut the cake. Out of his 12 party guests, only 6 ate cake. John let his friend Jackson take half the remaining cake home. What fraction of the cake was left over?
33. The area of a rectangle is 72 square units. One side has a length of 9 units. What is the other side length?
34. Monico drew a shape. It was a quadrilateral, and all sides were the same length. Which shape did Monico draw?
35. Gloria is buying a new rug for her bedroom floor. If the floor measures 12 feet x 12 feet, which size rug does she need?
36. The area of Happytown is 42 square miles. If the length is 7 miles, what is the perimeter of the town?
37. Aiden read 2 pages in his chapter book every day for 7 days. The book has 32 total pages. How many pages does Aiden have left to read?
38. Sophia has a twenty dollar bill. She buys six pop-it fidget toys for $2 each. How much money does Sophia have left?
39. There are 10 people at a cookout. Each person will eat 2 hot dogs. There are 8 hot dogs in a package. How many packages are needed?
40. Mrs. Potter bought 160 index cards. She gave the first row 55 index cards, then the second row 72 index cards. How many does she have left to give to the last row?
41. Samantha has 38 markers. She gives 29 markers to her classmates. Then she opens a new pack of 15 markers. How many markers does she have now?
42. There were 18 volleyballs in a bag and 13 volleyballs in a basket. 10 of these were used at recess. How many volleyballs were not used?
43. Mrs. Horton has 1 gallon of milk. She poured out 3 cups of milk. How many cups of milk does she have left?
44. Mark needs to buy yarn for 5 friends to do a science activity. Each friend needs 2 feet of green yarn and 1 foot of purple yarn. How many yards of yarn does Mark need to buy?
45. Nadine’s new jump rope is 4 inches longer than her old jump rope. Her old jump rope was 32 inches long. How long is Nadine’s new jump rope?
46. Dervin lined paper clips up in two rows. Each row was 18 feet long. How many feet of paper clips did Dervin have if he added the two rows together?
47. London started looking for her missing dog at 2:10 pm. It took her 43 minutes to find him. What time did London find her dog?
48. Damon took a train from his house to downtown. The train left the station at 1:08 pm and traveled 33 minutes before arriving downtown. What time did the train arrive?
49. Hannah worked on her homework for 37 minutes. If she started at 7:14 pm, what time did she finish her homework?
50. Kevin started cleaning his room at 6:03 pm. If he finally finished at 6:40 pm, how long did Ned spend cleaning his room?
If you like these third grade math word problems, check out our third grade hub for even more resources.
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