Weekly Rich Open Problems for Mathematical Problem Solving Grade 2

Bruce Williams. CreatingRealMathematicians.com

Problem Solving 1

I had five coins in my pocket.

How much money might I have had?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 2

I found a pile of gloves under my bed.

How many fingers might all of these gloves keep warm?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 3

At the pet store I bought a snake for a pet.

The pet store owner said it would double in length in one year.

How long might my snake be next year?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 4

I had some dollar bills. I bought a present for my Mom.

How many bills do I have left?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 5

I saved $3:00 each week until I had enough money.

How much money might I have saved?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 6

Mom and I went fishing. I caught nine more fish than her.

How many fish did we catch?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 7

I went to the candy store and bought five different candies.

How much did they cost altogether if they all cost different amounts?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 8

Up the back of the pet store there were many fish in a large fish tank.

The following week when I went to show my Mom, half the fish had been sold.

How many fish were in the tank?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 9

I made a number using Flats, Longs and Ones.

I added some more Flats, Longs and Ones.

What is my number now?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 10

I went to the park and saw lots of different shapes.

What shapes might I have seen?

Draw and label the shapes.

Problem Solving 11

Mom made cookies in many different shapes.

What might the tray of cookies look like?

Problem Solving 12

I went fishing with my family.

I caught more fish than my Mom but less than my Dad.

How many fish did we catch?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 13

On Monday the farmer planted 3 vegetables.

On Tuesday she planted 3 more vegetables.

She continued for the whole week.

How many vegetables did she plant last week?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 14

On my holiday the temperature got hotter each day.

What was the temperature each day?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 15

My friends and I each had Ten Apples up on Top.

How many apples did we have altogether?

(Read Ten Apples Up On Top. by Theo LeSeig).

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 16

For my birthday we cut the cake into pieces for all my friends.

What fraction of the cake did we get each?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 17

I found 5 worms in the garden after the rain.

They were all different lengths.

How long was each worm?

Draw in order from smallest to largest.

Problem Solving 18

The farmer planted carrots in an array.

The rabbit ate all the carrots around the outside.

How many carrots were left?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 19

At the zoo the zoo keeper weighed 5 different animals and put them in a line from largest to smallest.

Draw what the line looked like.

Problem Solving 20

I put my toys into an array to count them.

How many toys did I have?

Write the number sentences for this array.

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 21

Mum bought stamps to send letters to her friends.

The stamps were in an array.

How many stamps did she buy?

Write the number sentences for this array.

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 22

The cars in the parking lot were parked in an array.

How many cars were there?

Write the number sentences for this array.

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 23

Mum made trays of cookies. Each tray was in an array.

How many cookies did she bake?

Write the number sentences for this array.

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 24

All the different fruit at the fruit store was arranged into arrays.

How much fruit was there in each array?

Write the number sentences for this array.

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.

Problem Solving 25

My building has many windows.

They were in an array.

So were all the buildings in my street.

How many windows were in my street?

Solve using Pictures / Numbers / Words.