Worksheet · Grades 3–4 · Word problems
Word Problems: Shopping
Two A4 pages of shopping word problems: question, calculation and answer, two steps, estimating, extra facts and an answer key.
Word problems: shopping
1 Question, calculation, answer.
Zoe buys 2 notebooks at $2.40 each and a pen for $2.50. How much does Zoe pay?
Calculation:
Answer:
2 Two steps.
a) Ava has $10. Ava buys 2 scoops of ice cream at $1.40 each. How much money is left?
b) Mia has $20. Mia buys 4 scoops of ice cream at $2.10 each. How much money is left?
3 Is there enough money?
Estimate: round the prices to whole dollars.
a) Max has $15 and wants to buy something for $8.15 and something for $3.35.
b) Liam has $15 and wants to buy something for $7.55 and something for $10.80.
4 What don’t you need?
One fact is not needed. Cross it out.
A bus has 51 seats and is 11 m long. 18 children get on. How many seats are still free?
5 Think backwards.
Noah went shopping and paid $13.40. Now there is $5.95 left in the wallet. How much was there before?
★ Brain teaser
A ball and a book cost $12 together. The ball costs $3 more than the book. How much is the book?
6 The bill. Work out each row, then the total.
| Item | Number | Each | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erasers | 5 | $2.15 | |
| Pencils | 2 | $1.50 | |
| Notebooks | 4 | $1.95 | |
| Total |
Word problems: shopping
1 Question, calculation, answer.
2 Two steps.
3 Is there enough money?
4 What don’t you need?
5 Think backwards.
★ Brain teaser
6 The bill.
What is on the worksheet?
The example at the top works out the cost of several items in one calculation. Task 1 practices the three parts of every word problem: question, calculation, answer. Task 2 has two-step problems where your child first finds the cost and then the money left. In task 3 your child rounds prices to whole dollars to estimate whether the money is enough. Task 4 contains one fact that is not needed and must be crossed out, and task 5 works backwards from what is left in the wallet. A brain teaser and a bill with several rows and a total finish page 1. Page 2 has all the answers.
All prices are in dollars and cents.
Who is it for?
Grades 3 and 4, once children can add and subtract amounts of money.
How to use it
Read each problem together and underline the question first. Then decide which numbers are needed, calculate and write the answer as a full sentence.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an answer key?
Yes. Page 2 shows every answer and a short note for parents and teachers. You can leave it out when you print.
Can I get new problems?
Yes. “New numbers” opens the worksheet generator with the same topic and new numbers, as often as you like.
Why is there a fact that is not needed?
Real problems often contain extra information. Crossing it out trains careful reading before calculating.