Story problems: start unknown
These are the hard ones, and most programs skip them. We do not.
What this skill is
Word problems come in specific semantic shapes, and children find them wildly different in difficulty. Most practice only contains the easy one; this rung deliberately includes the hard ones.
Three ways to teach it at home
- Read it twice. First for the story, then for the numbers.
- Draw a bar: what is the whole, what are the parts, and which one is missing?
- Deliberately include the hard shapes — "she had some, then found three, now has seven" — because most practice only contains the easy one.
Where this sits in the ladder
Comes after
Opens next
This is the top of its strand.
Questions people actually ask
What grade is "story problems: start unknown"?
It sits in grade 1 in most sequences, and it is aligned to 1.OA.A.1. In Ladderbug it opens once missing numbers is solid — grade labels are a rough guide, and readiness is what actually matters.
Is this game free?
Yes. This page needs no account, no email and no card, and there are no advertisements. It saves progress in your own browser.
This is one rung of 82.
Open the whole ladder — free