Category: Teaching Tools

Build a Math Word Problem Worksheet Generator

Whether you love or hate the Common Core, to be successful at the test one needs to able to solve math word problems. Today’s spreadsheet will allow you to practice by generating a unique set of math word problems each time it is refreshed. Special thanks to my coworker V for the idea (or alternatively, you know who to blame).

Spreadsheet Inputs

The goal for today’s spreadsheet is to generate five word problems with randomized inputs for the numbers. Word problems tend to follow similar patterns, and we’ll try to replicate some common word problems. There are many different types of word problems (this set of 120 of them from Prodigy is a good example), but maybe we’ll stick to some simple addition and subtraction problems for now.

We’ll make our own simple problems where (some person) has (some number) of an object and either gets (some number) more or less, and then add some small variations.

For the person, we’ll randomly pick one of the top 50 girls and boys names from the year 2019. We’ll also randomly pick the object. This will go on a separate tab to keep things clean:

Our main user input will be how large they want the numbers to add or subtract to be, essentially adjusting for the difficulty:

Then we’ll go back to the second page to create some word problem templates. We’ll generate a random number between 1-100 for the name, identify the gender, take a random object between with a random number between 1-26, then generate enough random numbers for each type of problem.

Here we made formulas to generate word problems for 2 number addition and subtraction:

The next steps were a little involved, and required formatting, merging and centering cells. To use the sheet, one would need to paste in the desired templates for each of the 5 questions. One could also create new templates to paste in:

Check out the spreadsheet here: Math Word Problem Generator

If you like today’s post, check out the other customizable kids educational spreadsheets that we’ve created during this pandemic:

Build a Math Pattern Recognition Worksheet

Well, we’ve officially lost count of how many weeks of quarantine have passed. For us, quarantine started with a nice streak of weeks posting educational kids activities spreadsheets. Now our time is mostly filled with work, kids, trying to stay sane, and streaming video services.

Today’s spreadsheet generates a unique math pattern recognition spreadsheet for kids. It refreshes each time the key F9 is pressed. You can adjust the difficulty level of this sheet by setting inputs, such as the size of the numbers and increments, the number of blank spaces to fill in with more blanks adding more challenge, and whether to use addition, subtraction or multiplication.

Feeling way too lazy to walk step by step through how this was built, we include the link of the spreadsheet below. Feel free to download and click through the formulas yourself! (Hint – the formulas are hidden in the four rows after each question, change the cell formatting back to “General” to see it)

Download the spreadsheet: Math Pattern Recognition Worksheet

Build a Kids Sight Words quiz spreadsheet

Coronavirus lockdown week 11? – Let’s continue with what has now become a series of posts on educational kids activities spreadsheets. As a reminder, Part 1 was a Math Dice spreadsheet game and Part 2 was a Custom Math Worksheet Generator. Today’s spreadsheet will hop over to the English language part of elementary education and help you quiz your kids on their sight words.

Our goal is to take a list of sight words and randomly pull one word every time the sheet is refreshed so you can quiz your child. Sight words are frequently occurring words that kids should memorize rather than sound out.

Spreadsheet Inputs

  • The list of Dolch sight words. Edward William Dolch compiled this list of words, which were published in a journal in 1936.

  • The grade level. We’ll do a little trick here where we add a drop down menu by using the Data Validation function to select from the list of possible grade levels in the above screen, cells F4:F48.

Spreadsheet Output

Once you pick a grade level, the spreadsheet will use the Randbetween() function to generate a random number between 1 and the maximum number of words in that grade level. Then it uses a vlook function to return the word with which you can torture test your child.

Try it out yourself by downloading the spreadsheet here: Dolch Sight Words quiz spreadsheet. Remember to hit the F9 key to recalculate the worksheet and generate a new random sight word.

Build a Printable Math Worksheet Generator Spreadsheet

Now two months into lockdown, we’re already scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to kids’ activities. No one wants to play our Math Dice Spreadsheet anymore. Why not torture educate them with a potentially never-ending stream of repetitive math reinforcement? Kidding aside, a mastery of arithmetic is a prerequisite for the (only slightly) more advanced problem solving examples that we provide here at spreadsheetsolving.com…

We basically want to create a spreadsheet that creates a bunch of random arithmetic problems that looks like this and can be printed:

Spreadsheet Inputs

  • What arithmetic operator we are practicing (+,-,x,/)
  • The largest possible value of the first number (one can adjust the difficulty by allowing more digits for each number you are working with.
  • The largest possible value of the second number.

Spreadsheet Outputs

This is another relatively simple spreadsheet – we’ll again use the randbetween() function to generate random numbers between 0 and the maximum values. The challenge with this spreadsheet is the formatting and making things look presentable. I’ll save you the gory details and just post the file here:

Download the Excel .xls file by clicking here: Custom Math Worksheet Generator

For another spreadsheet that combines both addition and subtraction on the same sheet, click here: Custom Math Worksheet Generator 2

Classroom Seating Layout Spreadsheet

What seating arrangement is best for your classroom? Traditional rows and columns? U-shaped? Clusters?  Do you want your students seated alphabetically or randomly? Use this spreadsheet to plan and experiment with various seating layout options for your classroom! Continue reading “Classroom Seating Layout Spreadsheet”

The “360 spreadsheet” for teachers and educators

We first heard of the 360 spreadsheet from the book Hacking Education: 10 Quick Fixes for Every School by Barnes and Gonzalez. This post* (and more to come) will cover how spreadsheets can be a tool for those with a love of teaching, learning, and inspiring others.

A 360 spreadsheet is a simple tool that provides teachers with a more complete, “360 degree” view of each student. Basically, it allows them to get to know their students on a deeper level, all in one place. We created a slightly enhanced version of the 360 spreadsheet in Google Sheets, which has many benefits. We’ll show you how we added new features to this spreadsheet, which you can download below.  Continue reading “The “360 spreadsheet” for teachers and educators”

Create Study Index Cards in a Spreadsheet

Index CardsI’m studying for the SAT, ACT, or GRE exam and need to boost my vocabulary. I’m trying to remember important concepts for my chemistry test. I’d like to remember a few algebra formulas (like the Pythagorean Theorem) or geometric proofs. I want to better prepare for my foreign language quiz. Well, we’ve got something for each of you. With the school season well underway, let’s check out effective study tool tailored to your specific goals – all created with a single spreadsheet!  Continue reading “Create Study Index Cards in a Spreadsheet”