Second grade math word problems
Here is a list of 30 important second grade math word problems that students must know how to solve in second grade.
1
Alex, Harley, and Olive are out orange picking. Alex has picked 8 oranges, Harley has picked 12 oranges, and Olive has picked 5 more oranges than Alex. How many oranges have they picked altogether?
2
Rita is exercising every day. She walks 6 blocks on Monday, 9 blocks on Tuesday, and 12 blocks on Wednesday. If she follows the same pattern, how many blocks will she walk on Thursday?
3
Elijah is counting his money. He has 6 dimes, 4 nickels, and 17 pennies. How much money does he have?
4
Noah is putting a 200 piece puzzle together. After he’s put some together, he counts 78 pieces left in the box. How many pieces has he put together?
5
Luci goes to the candy store with 79¢. She buys a box of chocolate for 50¢. How much change will she get back?
6
Jeremy eats 15 crackers on Monday, 26 crackers on Tuesday, and 9 crackers on Wednesday. How many crackers has he eaten so far this week?
7
Mia and Logan are selling chocolate bars. Mia sold 17 chocolate bars on Friday, and 12 chocolate bars on Saturday. Logan has sold 6 less chocolate bars than Mia. How many chocolate bars has Logan sold?
8
Lucas eats 2 vitamin gummies every day. How many vitamin gummies does he eat in 6 days?
9
Ava has drawn 62 drawings over the summer. She gives 5 to her grandparents, 13 to her aunt, and 22 to her second grade class. How many does she have left?
10
Rowan buys a bag of candy with 45 pieces in it. He gives 19 pieces to his friend Parker. Later, his friend Willow gives him a bag with 8 pieces of candy in it. How much candy does Rowan have now?
11
Mr. Carter, the art teacher, wants to make stations for Aiden’s class. Each station can fit 7 people, and Aiden’s class has 21 people. How many stations does Mr. Carter need to make?
12
There are 53 people on a bus. At the first stop, 19 people get off. At the second stop, 36 people get on. How many people are on the bus now?
13
Jade finds 4 seashells on the beach. Then she finds 7 more. Does Jade have an even or odd number of seashells?
14
Ashton is counting his marbles. He arranges them in 4 rows, with 5 marbles in each row. How many marbles does he have?
15
Taylor is having a party. There are 34 people coming, and she needs to order cookies for all of them. If there are 10 cookies in each box, how many boxes of cookies does she need?
16
Mackenzie is learning skip counting. She writes the numbers 100, 103, and 106. What are the next five numbers in the sequence?
17
Danni’s class is on a field trip. They leave school at 8:05 am and come back to the school at 2:30. How long was the field trip?
18
Hope’s soccer team has won their past three games. In the first game, they scored 60 points. In the second game, they scored 59 points. In the third game, they scored 72 points. How many points have they scored in all?
19
Bradley, Tessa, and Fiona collect baseball cards. Bradley has 307 cards in his collection, and he gives 31 to Tessa and 24 to Fiona. How many cards does Bradley have left?
20
The basketball team is having a dog wash fundraiser. At the end of the fundraiser, Kaitlyn has washed 58 dogs, Frankie has washed 33 dogs, and Sam has washed 44 dogs. How many dogs got washed?
21
Kody’s family is on a train trip. The train leaves at 12:50 pm, and it takes them 3 hours and 25 minutes to reach their destination. What time do they make it?
22
Jasmin goes to the toy store. Her mom gave her $1 to spend. She sees a bouncy ball for 33¢ and candy for 20¢ each. If she buys the ball and a piece of candy, how much change will she get back?
23
Jaden and Jodie are eating from a bag of gummy bears. Jaden eats 21 and Jodie eats 19. There are now 47 gummy bears left in the bag. How many gummy bears were in the bag before Jaden and Jodi ate some?
24
Adison is saving money for a new iPad. She got $40 from her grandparents, and $75 from her parents. She’s already saved $250 herself. How much money does she have to buy the iPad?
25
Sabrina is putting a puzzle together with her friend Baxter. They put 88 pieces together, then count in the box and see that there are 43 pieces left. How many pieces does the puzzle have?
26
Matthew finds 3 quarters, 2 dimes, 5 nickels, and 10 pennies in his old piggy back. How much money does he find?
27
Henry is skip counting by 5 and writing the numbers on a piece of paper. Then he spills some juice on the paper. Some numbers have disappeared. Fill in the missing numbers: 55, 60, __ , __ , 75, 80, __ , 90, __
28
Isabella and Levi go to the aquarium. Levi asks Isabella how many fish she sees. She says there are less than 12. There are more than 10 fish. How many fish does Isabella see?
29
Ms. Davidson divides the class into 3 groups. If there are 18 kids in the class, how many people are in each group?
30
There are 53 kids in fifth grade at Jackson Elementary school, and on the last day of school, the cafeteria is making ice cream cones. They make 37 vanilla cones before they run out of vanilla ice cream, and they make the rest of the cones with chocolate ice cream. How many cones are made with chocolate ice cream?
Things to keep in mind about the second grade math word problems
- These 2nd grade math word problems align with the common core standards. Students are exposed only word problems in second grade as they try to solve these problems using simple addition, simple subtraction, multiplication and division with one or two-digit numbers.
- As students try to solve these second grade math word problems, they will also develop their reading comprehension at the same time.
- The topics that are covered mostly include addition word problems, subtraction word problems, multiplication word problems, division word problems, and some simple money word problems by adding coins. These are the skills they need to master at that grade level.
- If students can solve at least 25 of these 30 second grade math word problems, you can conclude that the students have good critical thinking skills and are good at solving 2nd grade math word problems.
- These word problems will expose every 2nd-grader to situations he or she already encounters in everyday life.
- All word problems can be used in class as extra practice, test prep, homework, morning work in the classroom, and incorporated in tests. As an alternative, you could put them one by one on the whiteboard and discuss the solution with the whole class.
- It is usually a bit challenging for young learners to tackle word problems. Be patient with them and give them time to process the information in the problems.
- All the problems are supposed to be simple word problems. If you think a problem is too tough for a kid in second grade, let me know.
- Download a PDF file of these word problems. You could also use it as a worksheet.