Mary found 3 marbles under the couch. John has 5 marbles in his pocket. How many marbles do they have in total?
Strategy: Use marbles or something tangible and have the students count the total number. They can also draw the marbles on a sheet.
Stephen has 5 pieces of carrot in his lunch box. He ate 3 of them. How many does he have left?
Strategy: The children can draw 5 carrots, scratch out 3, then count the rest. They may also use beans to perform the operation physically.
Farmer John has grown 5 pumpkins. He gives his neighbor, Miss Lucy 2 of them, so that she can carve them for Halloween. His brother Harry comes to visit and brings 1 pumpkin. How many pumpkins does Farmer John have now?
Strategy: Draw 5 pumpkins on the board. Put an X through 2 of them. Then draw 1 more and have the children count the pumpkins. They can also use something tangible to count.
Mrs. Miller has 7 red marbles and 5 yellow marbles. She closes her eyes and picks a marble. Which color do you think she is more likely to pick?
Strategy: Demonstrate the action in the problem. Repeat it several times to show she is more likely to pick red.
The school is having a bean bag toss contest. The person who tosses the most bean bags through the hoop wins. Nancy won the contest but made her mom guess how many bean bags she got through the hoop. Here are the clues Nancy gave.
There are more than 23.
There are fewer than 27.
It is an odd number.
How many bean bags did Nancy toss through the hoop?
Strategy: Make a table. Count by ones and write all the numbers from 23 through 27. Use the clues to circle the number.
Sam buys a pack of gum for $1.50. He gives the shopkeeper $2.00. How much change will he get back?
Strategy: Use play-money with coins and bills to solve this problem. Explain the relationship between the coins and the bills.
Many online sites have word problems for first graders. Some of them offer free downloadable worksheets. You will find such links in the references and resources.