Every sheet of two step word problems on this page is built the moment you open it, so the 20 problems below are not the same ones the last visitor printed, and the answer key is generated with them. You will see items like “A shelf holds 11 books per row in 9 rows. 8 books are borrowed. How many remain?” and “Finn saves 7 dollars a week for 9 weeks and then spends 5 dollars. How much is left?” on the printed page, with 91 and 58 dollars waiting on the answer key so nobody has to redo the arithmetic.
‘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.
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.
The reliable routine is to read it twice, say what is being asked in your own words, write the number sentence, then calculate. Skipping straight to the numbers is what produces confident wrong answers.
Answers should carry their units. A number without a unit is not an answer to a word problem, however correct the arithmetic.
These two step word problems are commonly aligned with the problem-solving expectations for this grade, and the skill appears in most curricula somewhere around this point.
| # | Problem | Answer | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A shelf holds 11 books per row in 9 rows. 8 books are borrowed. How many remain? | 91 | Watch for: missing a step in a two-step problem |
| 2 | Finn saves 7 dollars a week for 9 weeks and then spends 5 dollars. How much is left? | 58 dollars | Check: grabbing the numbers and guessing the operation |
| 3 | A shelf holds 9 books per row in 6 rows. 5 books are borrowed. How many remain? | 49 | Look at: answering a different question |
| 4 | Ruby saves 6 dollars a week for 3 weeks and then spends 5 dollars. How much is left? | 13 dollars | Ask about: dropping the units |
| 5 | Leo buys 3 packs of 10 pencils and then loses 14. How many pencils are left? | 16 | Watch for: not checking whether the answer is sensible |
| 6 | Noah buys 9 packs of 10 pencils and then loses 13. How many pencils are left? | 77 | Check: being thrown by unfamiliar names or objects |
Try “A shelf holds 9 books per row in 6 rows. 5 books are borrowed. How many remain?” together before letting the child start alone. The answer to “A shelf holds 9 books per row in 6 rows. 5 books are borrowed. How many remain?” is 49, and talking through how it was reached takes about a minute and saves several minutes of guessing later in the sheet.
Work “Ruby saves 6 dollars a week for 3 weeks and then spends 5 dollars. How much is left?” out loud as a demonstration. It gives 13 dollars. Children who hear “Ruby saves 6 dollars a week for 3 weeks and then spends 5 dollars. How much is left?” reasoned through once at the start of a session make noticeably fewer errors in the ten minutes that follow.
The answer key is generated with the worksheet, not written by hand, so it always matches the sheet in front of you — “A shelf holds 11 books per row in 9 rows. 8 books are borrowed. How many remain?” is listed as 91, “Finn saves 7 dollars a week for 9 weeks and then spends 5 dollars. How much is left?” as 58 dollars, and so on down the page.
Because the numbers are random, there is no shared answer list to look up: the key printed behind your sheet is the only one that fits it, and it shows 91 for “A shelf holds 11 books per row in 9 rows. 8 books are borrowed. How many remain?”.
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 two step word problems, run it for 12 minutes, mark it together, and come back tomorrow for a different set of numbers on the same skill.
→ 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