Grade 1 Addition and Subtraction Word Problems
Twelve grade 1 story problems where the work is deciding whether to add or subtract. Free printable PDF with a complete answer key, no sign-up.
Read each problem. Decide whether to add or subtract, then write your answer.
- 1.Sam has 7 red blocks and 5 blue blocks. How many blocks does he have in all?
- 2.There are 14 birds in a tree. 6 birds fly away. How many birds are left?
- 3.Ana has 9 stickers. Her aunt gives her 4 more. How many stickers does she have now?
- 4.A plate has 12 grapes. Ben eats 5 of them. How many grapes are left?
- 5.8 ducks are in the pond. 7 more ducks join them. How many ducks are there now?
- 6.Mia had 15 crayons. She lost 3 of them. How many crayons does she have left?
- 7.There are 6 cats and 9 dogs at the park. How many animals are there in all?
- 8.A basket holds 11 apples. 4 apples are eaten. How many apples are left?
- 9.Leo has 5 toy cars. His friend gives him 8 more. How many toy cars does Leo have?
- 10.There are 18 pencils in a cup. 9 are given away. How many pencils are left?
- 11.4 boys and 7 girls are on the team. How many children are on the team?
- 12.A box has 16 markers. 8 markers are used up. How many markers are left?
What this worksheet covers
There are twelve story problems here, on one printable page, with the worked answer key on the second. The problems are written as situations, so a student has to translate before they can calculate; answers carry units, and a number without its unit is only half an answer. The whole sheet sits inside Common Core 1.OA.1, in the grade 1 Operations & Algebraic Thinking strand.
Skills practiced
Grade 1 sits in the stretch of the word problems progression concerned with one-step problems with the unknown in every position. To finish it, a student has to read a situation and choose an operation before computing. The sheet is doing its job when the student can work it without hesitating.
How to use this worksheet
Sit alongside for this one. At grade 1 the useful information is not the score but which problems drew a pause, so watch for hesitation rather than waiting for the finished page. If more than a third of the page comes back wrong, stop and go back a step rather than assigning another sheet like it.
One mistake to watch for
Every number in the problem gets combined, whether it belongs or not.
The student is pattern-matching on the presence of numbers rather than reading for a relationship — often a learned response to years of one-step problems.
Assign problems containing an irrelevant number, and ask which numbers are needed before any computing happens.
Related worksheets
Also aligned to 1.OA.1
The same standard from a different angle. Worth reaching for when the skill needs another pass without repeating the identical page.
- Grade 1 Sharing Equally — grade 1, 12 problems
- Adding Up: Grade 1 Word Problems Within 20 — grade 1, 22 problems
A step either side
Word problems either side of grade 1, for stepping the difficulty rather than repeating it.
- 2.MD.5 — Adding and Subtracting Lengths Word Problems — grade 2, 22 problems
One PDF, twelve problems, and a full key: this is grade 1 word problems practice for one-step problems with the unknown in every position, free for home and classroom use.