Separate

For each type of Separate problem, I’ve created a slide deck with 10 ready-to-customize Numberless Word Problems. If you want to edit the slides, all you have to do is download or make a copy of the slide deck.

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More about Separate problems

This problem type involves situations where quantities are separated through some direct or implicit action in the situation.

Separate problems contain the following elements:

  • A starting amount
  • One or more change amounts that cause a decrease
  • An ending amount

While the action of separating is often associated with the operation of subtraction, subtraction is not necessarily the operation needed to solve a Separate problem. If the change or ending amount is unknown, for example, then addition OR subtraction may be successfully used to represent the situation and/or determine the unknown quantity.