Story Problems
Early Years
Based on Carol Stephenson’s Mathematics Program
Lesson Outline By Larisa Lam
Story problems can be used throughout the year to reinforce number sense in a fun and engaging way! Stories
can always be altered to fit student needs.
Curriculum Goal (From the Ontario Ministry of Education Curriculum Document)
Number Sense and Numeration
For students to begin to develop an understanding of numbers using
concrete materials to explore and investigate counting, quantity, and
number relationships.
Context
Students and the teacher begin by sitting in a circle with a working mat in
front of them and a collection of small wooden cubes in the top left-hand
corner. The teacher begins by explaining the wooden cubes are in their
“starting corner” and that the opposite side is their “take away corner.”
The teacher explains that students will be using the cubes to represent a
number of different items in the story.
Materials
Working mat for each student
Small wooden cubes or small manipulative
Lesson
Introduction
• The teacher begins by telling a story. For example:
My brother loves to have candy. For his upcoming birthday, I went to the store and bought him his favourite candy.
I bought two lollipops and four sour keys. Can you show me these candies using your cubes? How many pieces of
candy did I buy altogether?
Lesson
• At this point, the teacher gives students an opportunity to count the pieces and raise their hand when they have
an answer.
• Students are asked not to shout out so that all students have an opportunity to count up the pieces.
• Students will share their answers one-by-one and then students will count their cubes altogether.
• The teacher may also ask how students arrived at their answer (by counting, adding, etc.). Initially, this may
need prompting, such as “I saw you touching each cube and counting.”
• The teacher continues with the story…
When I got home, I made sure to hide the candy so that my brother would not find it and eat it! Then I went out for
a run and when I got home three candy pieces were gone! Can you move those pieces to your takeaway corner?
How many pieces do I have left to give to my brother as a present?
Closure
• Once again, the teacher gives students an opportunity to count the pieces.
• In order to share different strategies, the teacher can ask students how they arrived at their answers.
• The story continues and is adapted depending on the students’ needs and abilities.
Extension Lessons and Activities
Increase the numbers you are working with
• Teachers can increase the number students are working with as students become more sophisticated in their
numeracy skills. For example, working with a total number of 10 or 13 instead of 8 or 9.
Make the story more complex
• The story can be more complicated. For example:
- I saw two dancing cows. How many legs were dancing?
- Different people came to visit me on varying modes of transportation. There was one bicycle, and one wagon parked on my lawn. How many wheels were parked on my lawn?
Use story problems to teach comparision
• For example:
- There were a group of little bears that wanted to go on a picnic. There were seven little bears, and two parent bears. How many bears were there altogether?
- Before they left to go on their picnic, they had to pack some sandwiches. Five bears wanted honey sandwiches and four bears wanted honey. How many more bears wanted honey?
Tips
•
•
Take note of where students are in their learning and alter the story to fit their needs. Similar stories may need to
be repeated before moving on to the next story.
Children should be encouraged to arrange the manipulatives in a way that makes sense to them.
See the subsequent pages for full story problems.
Story #1
My daughter loves chocolates so for her birthday I decided to go to a special chocolate store and
buy her many different kinds. I bought her 2 milk chocolates, 2 orange chocolates and 3 mint
chocolates. Can you show me those chocolates with your cubes and put them in the middle of your
mat? How many chocolates did I buy for my daughter?
Great! So I had 7 chocolates all together. I got home and hid them in the closet so she would not find them. Then I
went to work and when I came home 2 chocolates were missing! Can you take two chocolates and move them to
your takeaway corner? Now how many chocolates did I have left?
Anyways, I could imagine who had taken the chocolates and I did not want to ask my daughter
because I did not want to give it away that I had bought her chocolate for her birthday. So I just
went back to the store to buy some more. This time they had some speciality chocolates and I
ended up buying 2 milk chocolates and 3 caramel chocolates. Can you show me this in the middle
of your mat? How many chocolates did I have in total to give to my daughter? How did you get to
that answer?
Yes I had 10 chocolates in total. Now I could not risk putting them in the closet where I thought they were safe so
this time I moved all of the chocolates to a new hiding place. I put them, under the bed because I knew no one was
going to look for chocolates there. Then I went out to the gym and when I came and checked on the chocolates
guess what? I found 3 chocolates missing! How many chocolate did I have left?
With only 7 chocolates I had to go out and buy more because we had guests coming over for her birthday and I
wanted her to have enough to share. So this time I bought 5 hazelnut chocolates. How many chocolates did I have
in total?
Thankfully, the party was that evening so I did not have to hide the chocolates anymore. I kept them in sight the
whole time I was preparing and when the guests arrived I was finally able to give my daughter her chocolates. She
loved them and shared them with her guests!
Story #2
My dog loves treats. When I went to go give him his daily treat, I realized we had run out! I went out
to the pet store and bought him five peanut butter cookies, four pepperoni sticks, and three sweet
potato cookies. How many treats did I buy him?
I thought these 12 treats were going to last him for 12 days - one each day. But, when I came home from work, to
my surprise two treats had gone missing! How many treats did I have now?
,
I had no idea where those treats had gone but instead of wasting time looking for them I just
decided to go to the pet store and get some more. This time I got a few extra because I knew we
were going to be babysitting another dog tomorrow and wanted to have some extra treats for him.
I bought four sweet potato cookies. How many treats did I have now?
Great! 14 treats! I decided to hide the treats this time because I didn’t want some to go missing again. So I hid them
on top of the fridge, went out for a walk and I found four treats missing! How many treats did I have left? How many
treats had gone missing?
I could not believe that five treats had gone missing in just one day. I decided to go back to the pet store one last
time and bought two more treats. How many treats did I have in total?
I went back home and the dog we were babysitting had arrived. Both dogs were playing together in the yard. I
started to wonder how many treats could I give each dog if I wanted to give them an equal number?
And that’s exactly what I did. I gave each dog six treats each and they were very happy. I never did find out who
stole those treats though!
Story #3
My family has a farm with a bunch of animals on it. We have typical animals - like cats and dogs - but also other
animals like chickens, cows and pigs. One day, I was sleeping and woke up when I heard a bunch of noise coming
from the barn. I got up, walked to the barn, threw open the doors and... guess what I find. Two dancing cows! How
many legs were dancing?
Well, I told those two cows to stop dancing because I needed to get some sleep! So the cows went back to bed and
so did I. A few hours later, I hear music coming from the barn again! I couldn’t believe it! I went down to the barn
again, threw open the doors and... guess what I found. Two cows, and two chickens dancing! Can you show me
how many legs were dancing?
Now this time, I told all the animals very clearly that I didn’t want to hear any music or any animals dancing because
I needed to get my sleep and they needed to get theirs. I walked back to the house, and put my head on the pillow
and started to drift to sleep. Just as I was about to fall into a deep sleep, I hear lots of loud sounds coming from…
the barn!
I put my coat on once again, went down stairs and threw open open the barn doors. This time I saw, one cow, two
pigs and one chicken dancing. Show me how many legs were dancing.
After waking up so many times, I wasn’t going to go to bed until I knew those animals were asleep. I told the one
cow to go to sleep. Take the four legs and put them in the take-away pile. How many legs went to sleep? How many
legs are still up and dancing?
Then I told the two pigs to go to sleep. Now how many legs stopped dancing?
I told the last chicken to go to sleep. Then I went back to my bed, pulled the covers over my head and, finally, went
to sleep for the rest of the night!