This page makes free printable 3rd grade math word problems worksheets on demand: press the button and you get a new sheet of 20 problems with a matching answer key, ready for US Letter or A4 paper. The version loaded below opens with items in the shape of “One ticket costs 4 dollars. How much do 9 tickets cost?” and “Finn shares 30 cards equally among 5 friends. How many does each get?”; the key lists 36 dollars and 6 next to their question numbers.
‘New set of problems’ opens the generator in its own tab. There you can change the problem count and turn the answer key on or off. ‘Print or save as PDF’ opens the print dialog — choose Save as PDF in the printer list to keep the file. The sheet fits US Letter and A4, and the answer key prints on its own page.
Because the names, objects and numbers regenerate, the child cannot recognise a problem type by its wording alone.
These problems use products under 110, so the reading, not the arithmetic, is the challenge.
A word problem tests two things at once: whether the child can choose the operation, and whether they can carry it out. On a problem like “One ticket costs 4 dollars. How much do 9 tickets cost?”, the arithmetic behind 36 dollars is usually the easy part.
Key words help and mislead in roughly equal measure. 'Altogether' usually means add and sometimes does not, so the child still has to picture the situation.
Teachers usually place 3rd grade math word problems worksheets alongside the problem-solving expectations for this grade, which is where the skill sits in the majority of US state frameworks.
| # | Problem | Answer | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One ticket costs 4 dollars. How much do 9 tickets cost? | 36 dollars | Watch for: being thrown by unfamiliar names or objects |
| 2 | Finn shares 30 cards equally among 5 friends. How many does each get? | 6 | Check: dropping the units |
| 3 | Ruby read 540 pages on Monday and 145 pages on Tuesday. How many pages in total? | 685 | Look at: missing a step in a two-step problem |
| 4 | One ticket costs 12 dollars. How much do 6 tickets cost? | 72 dollars | Ask about: answering a different question |
| 5 | A rope 63 cm long is cut into 7 equal pieces. How long is each piece? | 9 cm | Watch for: not checking whether the answer is sensible |
| 6 | Liam had 542 apples and was given 588 more. How many apples now? | 1130 | Check: grabbing the numbers and guessing the operation |
Try “Ruby read 540 pages on Monday and 145 pages on Tuesday. How many pages in total?” together before letting the child start alone. The answer to “Ruby read 540 pages on Monday and 145 pages on Tuesday. How many pages in total?” is 685, and talking through how it was reached takes about a minute and saves several minutes of guessing later in the sheet.
Take the first problem on the sheet as it stands, “One ticket costs 4 dollars. How much do 9 tickets cost?”. Work “One ticket costs 4 dollars. How much do 9 tickets cost?” out on paper rather than in your head the first few times, say each step aloud, and check the result against 36 dollars on the key before moving on.
The key prints on its own page by default. Uncheck the answer-key box before printing if you would rather keep it back and mark the sheet yourself.
Keys are produced by the same code that produces the questions, so a mismatch between question and answer is not possible on these sheets.
Printing works the same on US Letter and A4, because the layout uses relative widths rather than fixed inches. Set margins to default and scaling to 100%, and all 20 problems fit.
The sheet is laid out to fit one page on both US Letter and A4. Leave the browser scaling at 100% and turn headers and footers off, and the 20 problems land inside the margins on either paper size.
Print a sheet of 3rd grade math word problems worksheets, run it for 12 minutes, mark it together, and come back tomorrow for a different set of numbers on the same skill.
→ Free 3rd Grade Math Worksheets · → Free Word Problems Worksheets
Free printable math worksheets from a working math academy director in Korea. Problems come from our own code, not from a published workbook. Every sheet prints on US Letter or A4 with its answer key. All worksheets · Worksheet generator · Korean site
Last updated: 2026-09-13