This word problems worksheet for 2nd Grade covers one- and two-step word problems (Common Core 2.OA.A.1), with a free PDF to print.
These 20 problems practice one- and two-step word problems within 100. Students add to, take from, put together, take apart, and compare, and they also find unknowns at the start, the change, or the result.
The work follows Common Core standard 2.OA.A.1. Early problems are one step; the last six need two steps and bar models.
Grade 2 · Common Core State Standards: 2.OA.A.1
Word problems worksheet: exercises 1 to 10
Exercise 1 – Cookies at the bake sale
Aisha baked 46 cookies in the morning and 38 more in the afternoon. How many cookies did she bake in all?
Two parts, one whole.
Exercise 2 – Library shelf
A library shelf held 93 books. Children borrowed 47 of them. How many books are still on the shelf?
Exercise 3 – Marbles in two jars
A red jar has 28 marbles and a blue jar has 35 marbles. How many marbles are in both jars together?
Exercise 4 – Stars and moons
Noah has 71 stickers. 44 are stars and the rest are moons. How many stickers are moons?
The whole is 71.
Exercise 5 – Pencil gap
Mei has 62 pencils and Liam has 39 pencils. How many more pencils does Mei have than Liam?
The dashed part is the difference.
Exercise 6 – Fewer apples
Diego picked 54 apples. Sofia picked 78 apples. How many fewer apples did Diego pick than Sofia?
Exercise 7 – Extra raffle tickets
Ethan had 35 raffle tickets. He got some more. Now he has 72. How many tickets did he get? Write an equation with a ? and solve.
Exercise 8 – Birds on the wire
There were 81 birds on a wire. Some flew away and 49 birds stayed. How many birds flew away?
Count back from 81 to 49.
Exercise 9 – Birthday cards
Jamal got 26 trading cards for his birthday. Now he has 90 cards. How many cards did he have before his birthday?
Exercise 10 – Beads for bracelets
Priya used 18 beads to make a bracelet. She has 57 beads left. How many beads did she start with?
Exercises 11 and up
Exercise 11 – Buttons
Mei has 48 buttons. Noah has 25 more buttons than Mei. How many buttons does Noah have?
Exercise 12 – Crayon boxes
Aisha has 64 crayons. Diego has 17 fewer crayons than Aisha. How many crayons does Diego have?
Exercise 13 – Tickets by day
A Little League team sold 24 tickets on Friday, 31 on Saturday, and 19 on Sunday. How many tickets did the team sell in all three days?
Exercise 14 – Farmers market apples
Sofia brought 90 apples to the farmers market. She sold 35 in the morning and 28 in the afternoon. How many apples does she have left?
Three parts make 90.
Exercise 15 – Sticker trade
Liam had 45 stickers. He got 28 more, then gave 33 stickers to a friend. How many stickers does Liam have now?
Exercise 16 – Pages read
Ethan read 38 pages on Monday. On Tuesday he read 14 more pages than on Monday. How many pages did he read on the two days together?
Exercise 17 – Class on field day
A class has 29 girls and 24 boys. On field day, 15 students are absent. How many students are at school that day?
Exercise 18 – Bead totals
Priya has 57 beads. Mei has 26 fewer beads than Priya. How many beads do the two girls have together?
Exercise 19 – Race to 100 points
Jamal needs 100 points to win a prize. He scored 43 points in round one and 36 points in round two. How many more points does he need?
Find the missing part.
Exercise 20 – Crayon colors
A big box holds 72 crayons. 18 are red and 25 are blue. The rest are green. How many crayons are green?
Key facts behind this word problems worksheet
Key facts
Five story types: add to, take from, put together, take apart, and compare.
A bar model shows the parts and the whole so you can see which number is missing.
More than and fewer than mean comparing: subtract the smaller number from the larger.
A two-step problem needs two math sentences; the first answer feeds the second.
A ? or a letter can stand for the unknown number in an equation.
How to use this word problems worksheet
Work through the exercises in order: they go from simple to challenging. Write every step on paper, then compare with the solutions page and redo any exercise you missed the next day.
Download the word problems worksheet as a PDF with the button below and keep it with your notes.