Math problem set Grade 1 Engineering & Design

Tumbleweed Ridge Field Day: A Grade 1 Water Stand Problem Set

A grade 1 problem set on three field day water stands where students total spill tallies across three categories and subtract within 20 to compare the designs.

Grade: Grade 1
Subject: Engineering & Design
Material: Math problem set
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

1.MD.C.4 Common Core Math

Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.

How this material aligns: Problems 1, 2, and 5 organize the spill counts from three stands into three categories and ask for the total and for the category with the fewest, while problems 3 and 4 ask how many more one category has than another.

All materials for 1.MD.C.4 →

1.OA.A.1 Common Core Math

Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

How this material aligns: Problems 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 are compare, put-together, and take-from word problems within 20 built on the bottle, cup, and spill counts stated in each problem.

All materials for 1.OA.A.1 →

K-2-ETS1-3 NGSS

Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

How this material aligns: Problems 2, 3, and 4 analyze the spill tallies from the three stands to say which design lost the least water and by how much, and problem 8 compares the tilt stand's count before and after it was fixed.

All materials for K-2-ETS1-3 →

Download Word file

This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will total spill counts from three stands and say which stand had the fewest.
Students will subtract within 20 to find how many more spills one stand had than another.
Students will record three-category data as a tally chart.

Vocabulary

Water conservation: Using less water and using it wisely so there is enough for people and nature now and in the future. Small actions matter, since a faucet dripping once per second wastes roughly 3,000 gallons per year.

Teacher overview

The first-grade design club at the make-believe Tumbleweed Ridge School built three bottle-filling stands for field day, each holding the jug a different way: a tilt stand, a rack stand, and a hook stand. A club member stood at each one with a clipboard and made a tally mark every time water spilled on the grass, which gave the club a rough measure of how much water each stand wasted. This set works with those three counts, which is exactly the kind of three-category data first graders are asked to organize and question. A common error to watch for is the direction of the subtraction on the compare problems: students who read "how many more did the tilt stand have" often start from the smaller number and get stuck, so the key shows the larger number first every time. Watch as well for the assumption that the stand with the biggest tally must be the best design, since here the biggest tally means the most water lost.

Tumbleweed Ridge Field Day: A Grade 1 Water Stand Problem Set — Grade 1 Engineering & Design

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Problems

Read aloud: The design club built three water stands for field day. Kids filled bottles at each stand. A club member made a tally mark each time water spilled. The tilt stand had 8 spills. The rack stand had 3 spills. The hook stand had 5 spills.

The tilt stand had 8 spills. The rack stand had 3 spills. The hook stand had 5 spills. How many spills in all?
The tilt stand had 8 spills. The rack stand had 3 spills. The hook stand had 5 spills. Which stand had the fewest spills?
The tilt stand had 8 spills. The rack stand had 3 spills. How many more spills did the tilt stand have?
The hook stand had 5 spills. The rack stand had 3 spills. How many more spills did the hook stand have?
Make a tally chart. Use one row for each stand. The tilt stand had 8 spills. The rack stand had 3 spills. The hook stand had 5 spills.
The rack stand filled 9 bottles before lunch. It filled 7 bottles after lunch. How many bottles is that in all?
The club started with 20 cups. The club used 14 cups. How many cups are left?
The club fixed the tilt stand. It used to have 8 spills. Now it has 2 spills. How many fewer spills is that?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key

Answer: 16 spills.
Add the three counts in any order. 8 + 3 = 11, and 11 + 5 = 16 spills in all. Students may also add 3 + 5 = 8 first, then 8 + 8 = 16.
Answer: The rack stand.
The three counts are 8, 3, and 5. Comparing them, 3 is less than 5 and 5 is less than 8, so the rack stand's 3 spills is the fewest.
Answer: 5 spills.
Start from the larger count. 8 − 3 = 5, so the tilt stand had 5 more spills than the rack stand. Students may also count on from 3 to 8 and track the 5 steps.
Answer: 2 spills.
5 − 3 = 2, so the hook stand had 2 more spills than the rack stand.
Answer: A chart with 8 tally marks for the tilt stand, 3 for the rack stand, and 5 for the hook stand. Look for grouped fives in the tilt row, written as one bundle of five with three singles, and a bundle of five in the hook row. Row labels must name all three stands.
Answer: 16 bottles.
9 + 7 = 16 bottles. Students making ten will take 1 from the 7 to fill the 9, giving 10 + 6 = 16.
Answer: 6 cups.
20 − 14 = 6 cups left. Students may count on from 14 to 20, which is 6 steps.
Answer: 6 fewer spills.
The stand went from 8 spills to 2 spills, and 8 − 2 = 6 fewer spills than before.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Give these students a ten-frame with counters for problems 1, 3, 4, and 8 so each comparison can be built and taken apart. Provide a blank three-row chart with the stand names already written for problem 5. On problem 7, offer a number line from 10 to 20 so counting on is available.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask these students to figure out how many spills the club would have counted if all three stands had done as well as the rack stand, and to say how many spills that would have saved. They can also write one new problem about the stands for a partner to solve, using numbers within 20.

ELL supports

Provide a picture card for each stand, a tilt, a rack, and a hook, with the stand's name printed beneath it, so the three categories are distinguishable without reading. Pre-teach four words with gestures: spill, fill, tally, fewest. Allow problem 5 to be built with counters on a mat before it is drawn.

Extensions

Run the same count during a real class water break. Station three students with clipboards at the fountain, the sink, and the bottle-filling spout, and tally every spill for five minutes. Compare the class's three counts with the ones on this page and ask which of the school's three spots would be worth redesigning first.