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Writing numerical expressions worksheets

"Add 8 and 7, then multiply by 2" is 2 × (8 + 7), and the bracket is the whole answer. These free printable worksheets ask a child to write the calculation down rather than do it, which is the grade-5 step that makes order of operations mean something the following year.

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Writing numerical expressions
Writing numerical expressions worksheet — Two operations, no letters, free printable with answer key

The answer key prints on a separate page.

What's on this sheet

Every wrong option on these pages is made from the same numbers as the right one, with the bracket moved or dropped. That is deliberate: a distractor built from a number the question never mentioned can be crossed off without reading the words, and reading the words is the entire exercise. 2 × 8 + 7 and 2 × (8 + 7) differ by two symbols and by nine.

Why this sheet works

The second kind of question asks which expression is three times as large as 486 + 215, and the numbers there are deliberately big. The standard says to recognize the relationship without calculating, and the only way a printed page can ask for that is to make calculating obviously not worth it. A child who adds the two numbers first has answered a different, longer question and still has to choose.

How this one works

Read it in order, then say which way round

= a number
adding
12 × 7 − 3
  1. The phrase is "multiply 12 by 7, then subtract 3". The letter null is the number nobody has told us; everything else in the phrase says what to do to it.
  2. The words say we are adding.
  3. "more than" makes 12 bigger, so 12 is what is added to.

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