Word Problem Generator

Ms. Chen needs 10 word problems for pupils who can add confidently within 20 but are only beginning to read mathematical stories. She chooses Addition and a range of 1 to 20. The arithmetic stays familiar, so the new work is identifying the two quantities and the question. Moving the range to 1 to 100 on the same day would test place value and reading at once, making a wrong answer harder to diagnose.

The selected range controls the numbers stated in the story, not necessarily the answer. A multiplication problem with 8 groups of 7 uses two numbers inside a 1 to 12 range, while the answer is 56. Two-step problems can also produce a larger intermediate total. That is useful when the method is familiar, but it should be planned rather than accidental.

• Addition and subtraction: use 1 to 10 for first stories, then 1 to 20. Subtraction stories always leave zero or more, so the wording never asks a pupil to give away items that were not there.
• Multiplication: use 2 to 12 for times-table facts. Equal groups, rows, and containers make the repeated quantity explicit.
• Division: keep whole answers on while equal sharing is the lesson. A 1 to 20 range provides familiar dividends and divisors without division by zero.
• Two-step reasoning: begin with a smaller known range. Selecting and ordering two operations is already the new challenge.

A narrow range is not a weakness. It isolates the skill you want to observe. Increase the numbers only when a pupil can explain why the chosen operation fits the story.

A worksheet page holds 6 problems, each followed by two writing lines. That leaves enough room to underline useful facts, write a number sentence, and calculate without crowding the printer margin. A set of 10 problems becomes 2 worksheet pages and 2 matching answer-key pages on either Letter or A4 paper.

The answer key repeats the same numbering and page breaks. Problem 8 on worksheet page 2 is problem 8 on answer-key page 2. Every single-step answer shows the calculation and unit. Every two-step answer labels Step 1 and Step 2, so marking can separate a wrong plan from a small arithmetic slip.

• Before calculating: ask pupils to circle the question and underline only the facts needed to answer it.
• During marking: compare the number sentence before the final number. A correct answer reached by an unrelated operation needs different feedback from a calculation error.
• For a class set: print the worksheet once per pupil and the answer key once. Print both is useful for checking the layout before the full run.
• For parallel practice: keep every setting and press New worksheet. The level stays fixed while names, objects, templates, and numbers change.
• For a lost sheet: keep the worksheet code with the lesson notes. The same code and settings rebuild the exact pages.

All generation happens in the browser. Class names are used to build the visible stories and are not sent to a server, which makes it practical to personalise a worksheet without creating a stored class list.