2nd grade problem and solution worksheets
Problem and solution worksheets for second grade tell short, true-to -life stories: shoes on the wrong feet, mud tracked into school, a clock that ticks too loudly. Your child names the problem, the fix that worked, and often a try that failed along the way.
Free printable PDF worksheet.
Each click picks one of the 13 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.
Need one more? These are the skills next door at this grade.
The kind of passages you'll get
Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question.
The Pencil Problem
In Mr. Hale's class, the pencil sharpener was the loudest thing in the room. It ground and whined like a tiny motorcycle. Every time a pencil broke, someone got up to sharpen it. During spelling tests. During read-aloud. During the quiet part of every quiet…
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What was the problem?
the loud sharpener kept interrupting lessons · the class kept losing its pencils every single week · the pencils were all much too short for kids to use · the sharpener was broken
Answer: the loud sharpener kept interrupting lessons
- Why didn't the no-sharpening rule work? kids with broken pencils could not work · kids forgot the rule · Mr. Hale kept breaking the rule himself every day · the sharpener got even louder
Each print picks one of the 13 passages written for this grade, and its questions come with it. With 13 to pick from, a second print can land on one you've used, so check the title before you hand it out.
What's on a 2nd grade sheet
2nd grade sheets draw from 13 passages, 110 to 150 words long. None of these passages are on 1st grade sheets. On 1st grade sheets they run 87 to 112 words.
Some of the titles: The Squirrel and the Feeder, Mud Season at Piper Elementary, The Too-Loud Clock, How Ships Fit Under the Bridge, The Two-Dollar Fix, Bees on Guard.
- Reading passage. Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question. One passage per sheet, with its own question set.
Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.
How to teach this
Two questions organize everything: what kept going wrong, and what made it stop? Read the passage, ask both, and point at the sentences. If your child answers with the topic (the feeder, the shoes), ask what was going WRONG with it.
Watch for: The first fix a passage mentions is often the one that FAILED. Kids grab it because it comes first; the real solution is the one after which the problem stops. The problem is not the same as the topic. The topic might be a bird feeder; the problem is what kept going wrong at it.
Common questions about 2nd grade problem and solution
- What do the questions ask?
- The big two: what was the problem, and what solved it. Many passages include a failed try as well, and the sheet asks about that too, because ruling out wrong fixes is part of the skill.
- Are the stories realistic?
- Deliberately. Wrong-footed shoes, muddy hallways, loud clocks: problems a seven-year-old recognizes, solved the way real families and schools solve things.
Related worksheets
- 1st grade problem and solution A step easier, same skill
- 3rd grade problem and solution A step harder, same skill
- 2nd grade animal reading comprehension Same grade, nearby skill
- 2nd grade author's purpose Same grade, nearby skill
- 2nd grade cause and effect Same grade, nearby skill
- Problem and solution, all grades The full progression
- All 2nd grade English worksheets Every skill at this level
- All 2nd grade worksheets Everything at this level
Ready to print one?
Want a different passage? Print again. Each print picks one of the 13.
Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.
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