A number story is a short story that asks you to solve a problem. 

Here is an example: 

Brian has 367 stamps in his stamp collection. He took them to a stamp dealer who said that 59 of them are not valuable. How many of the stamps in Brian’s collection are valuable?

 This story asks you to solve the problem: How many of Brian’s stamps are valuable.

 A number story includes facts that you know, and facts that you need to find out.

 To solve the problem, you may have to arrange the facts using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. For some stories, you may have to arrange the facts in more than one step. It may be helpful to draw a picture to help you understand what’s going on in the story, and how to find the answer.

 For example, in the number story about Brian’s stamp collection:

 We know these facts: 

• Brian has 367 stamps in his collection
• 59 of these stamps are not valuable.

Let’s draw a picture to help us see what is going on: 

 The fact we need to find out is: 

• How many stamps are valuable?

To do this,  we arrange the facts in a number sentence that subtracts the not valuable stamps (57) from the total stamps in his collection (367): 

• Valuable stamps = 367 – 59

The answer is: 

• Brian has 308 valuable stamps.

We were able to solve this number story in one step.

 Here is an example of a number story that takes several steps to solve, and uses addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. 

Grace is driving to Charleston with her parents. The distance her Dad has to drive in 175 miles. During the first 3 hours, her Dad drives 50 miles per hour. From then on, her dad drives at 25 miles per hour. What will be the total driving time to get to Charleston? 

We know these facts: 

• The total distance to Charleston is 175 miles
• Grace’s Dad drives 50 miles per hour for the first 3 hours
• Grace’s Dad drives 25 miles per hour after that

We are trying to find out: 

• The total time it takes to drive to Charleston

Let’s draw a picture: 

 Since this number story involves distance, speed and time, we need to know an important number sentence that tells us how distance, speed and time are related: 

• distance = speed x time

The first step is figure out how far in distance did Grace’s Dad drive during the first 3 hours, when he was driving at 50 miles per hour. We can use a multiplication number sentence to find out: 

• distance = speed x time
• distance = 50 miles per hour x 3 hours
• distance traveled during the first 3 hours = 150 miles

The second step is to figure out how many more miles we have to travel. 

We now know the following facts: 

• The total distance to Charleston is 175 miles.
• We have traveled 150 miles during the first 3 hours

To find out how many more miles we have to travel, we can use the following subtraction number sentence: 

• distance to go = total distance – distance traveled so far
• distance to go = 175miles – 150miles = 25 miles

We can now figure out how much longer we have to drive. We need to use our distance-speed-time sentence to figure this out: 

• distance = speed x time
• 25 miles = 25 miles per hour x time to go
• Rearrange this sentence to read as a division number sentence:
• time to go = distance to go / speed
• time to go = 25 miles / 25 miles per hour
• time to go = 1 hour

Finally we are ready to solve the problem: What will be the total driving time to Charleston? 

• It took 3 hours to drive the first 150 miles
• It will take 1 hour to drive the last 25 miles.

To figure out the total driving time, we need one more addition number sentence: 

• Total driving time = 3 hours + 1 hour
• Total driving time to Charleston = 4 hours

Here is a bonus question: 

If Grace wants to be in the pool in Charleston by 3:30 pm in the afternoon, what is the latest time her Dad should leave the house?

Summary: 

To solve number stories:

·         Write down the facts you know.

·         Write down the question you are trying to answer.

·         Draw a picture to help you ‘see’ the problem.

·         Figure out a number sentence that will give you the answer. Remember, your number sentence may use addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. Say to yourself, “To get the answer, I have to (add, subtract, multiply, or divide) these numbers.”

·         Break up the story into steps if you need to.