Mathematics·Mathematical Thinking·meta
Guided Multi-Step Problem Solving
With teacher guidance, make sense of multi-step and more complex problems by planning a pathway to the solution, identifying relevant information, and choosing appropriate operations
Suggested ages 6–7
Learning journey
Your child is developing mathematical reasoning skills — learning to plan approaches to problems, explain their thinking clearly, spot patterns, and connect real-world situations to mathematical solutions.
Evidence of understanding
- When given a word problem within 20 or 100, identify the known information and what needs to be found
- Try a strategy (drawing, number line, known fact) and switch approach if the first attempt stalls
- Check the reasonableness of an answer using estimation or a different method
Assessment prompt
If Guided Multi-Step Problem Solving works out that 3 children each get 12 sweets and ends up with 5, does Guided Multi-Step Problem Solving pause and say "that doesn't seem right" rather than just writing it down?
Standards alignment
No external standards are linked to this topic.