Problem and solution worksheets

Each click picks one of the 26 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

Find what is going wrong, and find what fixes it. The best stories also show tries that failed before the fix that worked.

Five grades, each its own sheet. Print one here, or open a grade for examples and teaching notes.

Print by grade

1st grade

Examples and teaching notes

First grade problem and solution worksheets are short stories of about 100 words with one clear problem, like a ball stuck under the couch or a jam jar lid that won't turn. Most stories have a first try that doesn't work. Your child names the problem, the try that failed and the fix that worked, with three choices for each question.
2nd grade

Examples and teaching notes

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.
3rd grade Core grade

Examples and teaching notes

Each click picks one of the 26 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

Third grade passages give the problem more room: causes to notice, failed attempts to rule out, and a solution whose cleverness can be explained. Questions ask why the failed tries failed, which is where the thinking lives.
4th grade

Examples and teaching notes

Fourth grade passages run long and real: a lighthouse moved away from a hungry ocean, an island that redesigned its roads for migrating crabs. Your child untangles the problem, the constraints, the attempts, and the fix, the same structure science and history texts use constantly.
5th grade

Examples and teaching notes

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.