Elementary Math Problem Solving Strategies

Then, I provided them with the “keys to success.” We did this over and over with example problems.Once I felt the students had it down, we practiced it in a game of problem-solving relay. We talked about how this was where we were going to choose which strategy we were going to use.Strategies are things that Pólya would have us choose in his second stage of problem solving and use in his third stage (What is Problem Solving? So they are some sort of general ideas that might work for a number of problems. As speaking in riddles isn’t likely to be of much assistance to you, let’s get down to some examples.

Then, I provided them with the “keys to success.” We did this over and over with example problems.Once I felt the students had it down, we practiced it in a game of problem-solving relay. We talked about how this was where we were going to choose which strategy we were going to use.Strategies are things that Pólya would have us choose in his second stage of problem solving and use in his third stage (What is Problem Solving? So they are some sort of general ideas that might work for a number of problems. As speaking in riddles isn’t likely to be of much assistance to you, let’s get down to some examples.

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In this site we have linked the problem solving lessons to the following groupings of problem solving strategies.

As the site develops we may add some more but we have tried to keep things simple for now.

There is just something about word problems, or problem-solving, that causes children to think they don’t know how to complete them. I put together a problem-solving unit that would focus a bit more on strategies and steps in hopes that that would create problem-solving stars.

Every year in math, I start off by teaching my students problem-solving skills and strategies. First, I wanted to make sure my students all learned the different strategies to solve problems, such as guess-and-check, using visuals (draw a picture, act it out, and modeling it), working backward, and organizational methods (tables, charts, and lists).

I provided students with plenty of practice of the strategies, such as in this guess-and-check game. I also provided them with paper dolls and a variety of clothing to create an organized list to determine just how many outfits their “friend” would have.

Then, as I said above, we practiced in a variety of ways to make sure we knew exactly when to use them. Anyway, after I knew they had down the various strategies and when to use them, then we went into the actual problem-solving steps.

If it wasn’t, then they needed to tell what they missed and correct it. I just reminded students frequently of this acronym. Wow, you are a true trooper sticking it out in this lengthy post!

To demonstrate their understanding of the entire unit, we completed an adorable lap book (my first time ever putting together one or even creating one – I was surprised how well it turned out, actually). To sum up the majority of what I have written here, I have some problem-solving bookmarks FREE to help you remember and to help your students!

Every year my students can be fantastic at math…until they start to see math with words.

For some reason, once math gets translated into reading, even my best readers start to panic.