5th grade problem and solution worksheets

Tap to see another sample sheet.

Fifth grade problem and solution passages run about 300 words, and about half are true accounts: the mosquitoes that stalled the Panama Canal, the storm barrier the Dutch built after the 1953 flood, the city that reversed its river. The rest are stories. Five questions ask for the problem, its cause, why an early attempt fell short, what solved it, and what the fix cost or changed.

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.

The kind of passages you'll get

Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question.

The Lunchroom Roar

The new cafeteria at Brookside Elementary had shining tile floors, tall concrete walls, and a high ceiling of smooth metal. It looked wonderful. It sounded terrible. When three hundred students sat down to lunch, the room filled with a roar so loud that kids had…

  1. What was the problem in the new cafeteria? it was so loud that kids had to shout · it was too small for all the students · the lunch line moved too slowly · kids left trash on the floor

    Answer: it was so loud that kids had to shout

  2. Why didn't the quiet lunch rule work? students hated it, and the roar came back · the lunch aides forgot to enforce the rule · it made the room even louder during the first week · it only applied to one grade at the school

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 5th grade sheet

5th grade sheets draw from 13 passages, 303 to 341 words long. None of these passages are on 4th grade sheets. On 4th grade sheets they run 255 to 270 words.

Some of the titles: The Canal and the Mosquito, The Gates That Stay Open, Turning a River Around, Taming the Lightning, Too Many Rabbits, Grandpa Amos and the Doorbell.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Have your student retell the passage as a chain: the problem, what caused it, what was tried, why that wasn't enough, the fix and what happened next. Most wrong answers at this level mix up a cause with a problem, or an attempt with the solution, and saying the chain out loud sorts them apart.

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 5th grade problem and solution

Is there a 5th grade standard for problem and solution?
Problem and solution is one of the text structures RI.5.5 names, but that standard compares structures across two or more texts. These sheets use one passage at a time, so they are conventional practice for the structure itself.
Why do the questions ask what a solution cost?
Real fixes come with trade-offs, like money, time or a new problem downriver. Fifth grade history and science texts are full of them, and a reader who asks what a solution changed understands the passage better.

Related worksheets

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.

Spot a mistake on this sheet? Tell us. · About these worksheets