Story Problems Worksheets Within 10

About this resource

Kindergarten and first grade are where a child first hears "3 ducks are by the lake. 2 more waddle over" and has to turn it into a number sentence. This is a full kit for that step: six kinds of student page, 66 short stories where every number is 10 or less, and the record-keeping around them. Half the stories join and half take away, and the child has to say which. Every page has a big "My name" line, one short instruction, room to work and answer boxes a young child can write in.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (34 pages)

• 18 student pages: 17 practice pages in 6 formats, plus a Two Kinds of Stories page that shows a join story and a take-away story side by side
• 66 different stories, 33 that join and 33 that take away, with every answer from 1 to 10
• 12 pictures a young child names (apple, star, cookie, cupcake, balloon, kite, duck, frog, fish, bird, bee, butterfly) and a picture key
• 12 cut-and-glue pieces in 2 sets of 6 (three straight cuts a page)
• 2 answer keys, made from the same data as the pages
• 1 tracker (17 pages, 66 items), 1 class progress grid
• 1 team note and 1 home page (four draw-it boxes with number-sentence boxes for a family to fill in)
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase and story-talk bank (17 starters), 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here, a how-to-read-a-page page, and a "what's next" back page

The Six Formats

1. Picture Stories (3 pages, 12 stories): read the story, count the drawn pictures (on the take-away pages the crossed-out ones are gone), and write the answer.

2. Draw the Story (3 pages, 9 stories): read, draw the story in a big box, then write the number sentence.

3. Ten-Frame Stories (3 pages, 9 stories): finish a ten-frame, cross out the ones that go away, or draw the whole story in an empty frame, then write the number sentence.

4. Number Sentences (3 pages, 12 stories): fill in the sentence with a word bank of + and minus. The first page prints both numbers, the second only the first, the third none.

5. Which Matches? (3 pages, 12 stories): three number sentences under each story; circle the one that fits. One has the other sign and one has an answer that is one off, so only one fits.

6. Cut and Glue (2 pages, 12 pieces): glue each number sentence beside its story. Six pieces a page in a 3 by 2 block, every piece touching its neighbors. On the second page each pair of numbers appears in a join story and a take-away story, so the child has to read.

Dots at the top right of each page (not words) show the level: one dot, two dots, three dots.

Every Number Is 10 Or Less, On Purpose

Every number in every story, every picture row, every ten-frame and every answer choice is 10 or less, and every answer is between 1 and 10. That is checked in code for every story. The pictures are checked too: on Picture Stories the pictures drawn equal the story's numbers, the crossed-out ones equal the number that goes away, and each ten-frame holds the first number.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction with a picture, large rounded numbers and boxes at least half an inch tall. Draw the Story has a big draw box for each story; Number Sentences and Which Matches? have a "My work" box beside each story; on Picture Stories the pictures are the work. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult, and there are no scores and no timers. The pictures are Google Noto Emoji (Apache 2.0), each checked against a black-and-white ink-saver set, so the pages print well on any printer.

Type In, Or Print

The name and date lines, the answer boxes, the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the home page are type-in fields in any PDF reader (354 fields in all). Every page also prints cleanly in black and white. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Kindergarten and first grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher working with an older student who still needs stories with pictures. The home page sends the same job to a family; the team note hands off what changed since the last meeting.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

Story problem practice within 10, with the record-keeping around it. It is not a probe, a goal bank or a score sheet, it does not go past 10, and it makes no claim about any student's age or rate of progress.