Problem Solving Strategies for Third Graders

The purpose of this curriculum unit is to develop students’ critical thinking skills. This unit is designed to further students’ understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division number stories (word problems) and to provide students with problem solving strategies. It addresses the following strategies: Guess and Check, Find a Pattern, and Draw a Picture. Using these strategies, students explore:

1. How are addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division related to each other?

2. What are some strategies for solving addition and subtraction word problems?

3. What are some strategies for solving multiplication and division word problems?

This unit is intended to complement the School District of Philadelphia’s pre-existing curriculum (Everyday Math). The allotted time for this unit is three weeks in the fall. The focus is addition and subtraction word problems. Its audience is third grade students in a low to mid-income urban neighborhood.