Math word problems provide an excellent way for young students to improve their problem-solving skills and enhance their critical thinking abilities. When children are presented with real-life situations that involve mathematical concepts, it allows them to understand the relevance of what they are learning. With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of 50 engaging second-grade math word problems for you to use as a daily activity with your students.
1. Sally has 12 apples. She gives away 5 apples to her friends. How many apples does Sally have now?
2. Tim picked up 10 seashells at the beach. His brother gave him 7 more. How many seashells does Tim have in total?
3. Melissa has 8 red balloons and 6 blue balloons. How many balloons does Melissa have altogether?
4. There are 15 cookies on a plate, and a group of friends eats 9. How many cookies are left on the plate?
5. A garden has 11 flowers and Becky plants 3 more flowers in it. How many flowers are in the garden now?
6. Jacob collects stamps and has 25, while Emily has 18 stamps. How many stamps do they have together?
7. A box contains 20 stickers, but some get lost, leaving only16 stickers behind. How many stickers were lost?
8. Ethan finds $5 in his piggy bank and earns $7 from doing chores. How much money does Ethan have now?
9. Sophia read for 30 minutes Monday and then read for another half-hour Tuesday evening, how long did she read altogether?
10. The school cafeteria serves lunch to twenty-four kids in total: fifteen boys and the rest girls, how many girls were served lunch at the school cafeteria?
11. A bakery sells donuts at $2 each and muffins at $3 each. If Lucy buys 4 donuts and 3 muffins, how much does she spend?
12. Michael and Sarah want to buy a toy that costs $15. Michael has saved $6, and Sarah has saved $4. How much more money do they need?
13. Daniel rides his bicycle for 12 miles on Saturday and 7 miles on Sunday. How many miles did Daniel ride his bicycle in total?
14. Tina bought a toy for $8 and a book for $6. How much money did she spend in total?
15. Luke saw 17 birds at the park; then, he saw 9 more birds later. How many birds did Luke see altogether?
16. Mia takes piano lessons twice a week for thirty minutes each lesson. How long does she spend at piano lessons each week?
17. Max has four toy cars, and Sam has three times as many as Max. How many toy cars does Sam have?
18. Alice cuts a piece of string into sixty-three parts. Forty-five parts were blue and the rest were pink. How many pink string pieces did Alice cut?
19. Josh needs 25 minutes to get ready for school and walks ten minutes to school every day. How long does it take him from waking up until reaching the school gate?
20. An ice cream truck has twenty-seven ice creams left: fifteen chocolate flavored and the rest are vanilla; how many vanilla ice creams does the truck have left?
21. Julia has 12 apples. She gives 5 apples to Ryan. How many apples does she have now?
22. Peter has 35 pencils and comparted 15 more. How many pencils does he now own altogether?
23. Sarah’s lemonade stand sells drinks in two sizes: small for $2 and large for $5. If Sarah sells 4 small drinks and 3 large drinks, how much money does she make?
24. Mark and Lisa each had 10 stickers. After swapping some stickers, Mark had 14, and Lisa had the remaining amount. How many stickers did they swap?
25. Alicia baked 24 cookies, ate two, and gave six away to her friends. How many cookies does Alicia have left?
26. Tom found 18 seashells at the beach while Sally found 9 seashells more than Tom. How many seashells did Sally find?
27. At the pet store, there are seven parrots on one shelf and four parrots on another shelf. How many parrots are there in total?
28. Ethan bought a pack of pencils containing six blue pencils and four red pencils in it. How many pencils did he buy altogether?
29. There are eight ducks swimming in the pond, five more arrive from another side of the pond, how many ducks are there in total?
30. Karen got nine candies from her mom and six candies from her dad, how many candies does she have altogether?
31. Jasmine cuts off a 2-meter piece of ribbon from a 6-meter roll. How much ribbon does she have left?
32. Andrew is reading a book that has 25 pages. If he reads 12 pages today, how many more pages does he have left to read?
33. A farmer had twenty eggs, he sold five and cooked four. How many eggs did he have then?
34. Emma’s piggy bank has six nickels and four pennies. How many coins are in Emma’s piggy bank in total?
35. Timmy collects rocks and finds three each day. After a week, how many rocks will Timmy have collected?
36. During her hike, Kelly found eight mushrooms in the morning and six mushrooms in the afternoon. How many mushrooms did she find during the day?
37. There are sixteen people on a bus; seven are sitting, while the rest are standing. How many people are standing on the bus?
38. In December, James bought eight gifts, but only four were wrapped. How many gifts still need to be wrapped?
39. Layla shares twenty cherries between herself and her friend Mia. How many cherries does each person get if they share equally?
40. There are nine dogs in the park. Some dogs leave, and now there are only five dogs. How many dogs left the park?
41. If Emily has 5 apples and Tom gave her 2 more, how many apples does Emily have now?
42. There are 12 birds in a tree. 4 birds fly away. How many birds remain in the tree?
43. John has 3 toy cars, and his sister Mary has 4 toy cars. How many toy cars do they have together?
44. Annie baked 15 cookies and ate 4 of them. How many cookies does Annie have left?
45. A store sells packs of pencils with 8 pencils each. If James buys 3 packs, how many pencils will he have in total?
46. In a football match, each team scored 3 goals. How many goals were scored in total?
47. Sally found 9 seashells at the beach, but she gave 2 to her friend Jane. How many seashells does Sally have left?
48. A bag contains 18 marbles altogether – 8 red marbles and the remaining blue marbles. How many blue marbles are there in the bag?
49. There are five children waiting in line for ice cream, and each child will get two scoops of ice cream each. How many scoops will be served in total?
50. Janice has a box of candy with four rows of candy inside it: one row having seven pieces, another eight pieces, one with six pieces, and one row with five candies. How many candies are there in total?
