Decimal word problems, step by step

Decimals are where math meets a child's real life first — money and measurement.

The question

First find the total, then the change.

An eraser costs $1.43 and a ruler costs $3.35. Priya pays with $5.00.

numbers:$1.43$3.35

$1.43 + $3.35

asked:First find the total, then the change.

$1.43 + $3.35 =$4.78

$4.78 dollars

Read it through once. Grabbing the numbers on the first read means choosing an operation before you know the story, and that choice is the only hard part of a word problem.
Now the numbers: $1.43 and $3.35. Finding them is not the same as knowing what to do with them — that comes next, and it comes from the story rather than from the numbers.
Amounts are joining together. So this one is an addition: $1.43 + $3.35.
$1.43 + $3.35 = $4.78. And answer the question that was ASKED — "First find the total, then the change." — in dollars, because the sum on its own is not yet an answer.

How it works.

01
Read it through once. Grabbing the numbers on the first read means choosing an operation before you know the story, and that choice is the only hard part of a word problem.
02
Now the numbers: $1.43 and $3.35. Finding them is not the same as knowing what to do with them — that comes next, and it comes from the story rather than from the numbers.
03
Amounts are joining together. So this one is an addition: $1.43 + $3.35.
04
$1.43 + $3.35 = $4.78. And answer the question that was ASKED — "First find the total, then the change." — in dollars, because the sum on its own is not yet an answer.