There's an app for that!
When you have a "real world problem," or "math word problem," sometimes it's hard to know what to do with the numbers. You need to figure out if you add, multiply, subtract, or divide them. If there's more than 2 numbers in the problem, you also need to figure out which numbers to compute! That's when bar modeling can help.
If a word problem tells you about two people with different amounts, the first step is to draw a little bar for the smaller number, and a bigger bar for the bigger number. Imagine a problem started out saying "If Tim had $1 and Kim had $2..." you can see that Tim has a smaller amount than Kim.
If a word problem tells you about two people with different amounts, the first step is to draw a little bar for the smaller number, and a bigger bar for the bigger number. Imagine a problem started out saying "If Tim had $1 and Kim had $2..." you can see that Tim has a smaller amount than Kim.
The top person has less.
The bottom person has more.
See the difference here?
Once you've drawn these bars correctly, you can tell the difference. Just look at how much more the bottom person has. Of course the difference will be a smaller amount than the bigger bar. The difference can be found by subtracting, because subtracting gives you a smaller number.. If Tim has $1 and Kim has $2, subtract to find the difference is $1.
Both are selected here.
A problem might also tell you or ask you how much they have altogether. See how I'm indicating to both? A bracket (the thing that is drawn like a mustache) shows both. The total amount they have together is going to be bigger than the bigger bar. Adding gives you a bigger number. So if Tim has $1 and Kim has $2, add them together to show that they have $3 altogether.
Try it! If Noun1 has $20 and Noun2 has $50, what is the difference? How much do they have altogether?
Check out thinkingblocks.com for more practice!
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