Word problemsThree-step
Read each problem. Write the answer.
Three operations, in an order the question does not state. These free printable word problems are the step past two-step ones, where keeping track of what has been worked out matters as much as the arithmetic.
If they get stuck

The answer key prints on a separate page.
The difficulty is not the sums. Each individual step is something a fourth-grader can do; what is hard is holding two intermediate results in mind while working out the third, and knowing which one the question is actually asking for. That is why writing each step down, labeled, matters more here than on any easier sheet.
A common failure is answering the second step. A child works out the total, works out the difference, and stops — because the difference is a number and the page wanted one. Re-reading the question after the last step, and asking what it was for, catches almost all of those.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Three-step word problems, step by step