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Decimal word problems worksheets

Decimals are where math meets a child's real life first — money and measurement. These free printable worksheets put decimals inside those everyday situations, so adding and subtracting to the hundredth has a reason a child recognizes.

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Decimal word problems
Decimal word problems worksheet — Money and measurement, free printable with answer key

The answer key prints on a separate page.

What's on this sheet

The stories are money and measurement, because that is where decimals actually turn up: dollars and cents saved or spent, liters poured, kilometers walked, a plant measured to the tenth of a meter. A child decides whether the situation combines amounts or finds a difference, then lines up the decimal points and works to an exact answer. Grade four keeps the amounts friendly; grade five stretches the range and the measurement contexts.

Why this sheet works

The arithmetic is kept exact on purpose — money lands on clean amounts and measurements on tenths — so the difficulty is reading the situation and placing the decimal point, not wrestling with awkward figures. Because the answer is an ordinary number, these sheets also work on the practice page, not only on paper.

How this one works

One question from this sheet, worked through a step at a time.

How much did Kwame spend in all?

Kwame bought a bagel for $1.31 and a muffin for $2.61.
Kwame bought a bagel for $1.31 and a muffin for $2.61.
numbers:$1.31$2.61
$1.31 + $2.61
asked:How much did Kwame spend in all?
$1.31 + $2.61 =$3.92
$3.92 dollars
  1. Read it through once and do NOTHING. 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.
  2. Now the numbers: $1.31 and $2.61. 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.
  3. Amounts are joining together. So this one is an addition: $1.31 + $2.61.
  4. $1.31 + $2.61 = $3.92. And answer the question that was ASKED — "How much did Kwame spend in all?" — in dollars, because the sum on its own is not yet an answer.

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