Coordinate plane word problems: printable worksheets
Solve real-world problems on a first-quadrant grid: distances along a row or column, map walks, graphing a table, and reading a distance-time graph.
Sample worksheet
The first 2 problems of a real worksheet, made the way the builder makes it. Open it in the builder to change the number of problems, the difficulty and the layout, then print.
Show answers
Coordinate plane word problems put the first-quadrant grid to work on questions from everyday life. Fifth graders who can plot and read ordered pairs now use them to measure across a map, follow directions, graph real data and read the story of a trip.
A distance problem marks a pair of places on the same row or column of a map and asks how far apart they are. A map walk gives a starting point, a move east or west and a move north or south; the key gives the ordered pair where the walk ends and draws the path. A table graph lists pairs from a real situation, such as plants counted each week, to plot on a blank grid. A distance-time story shows a steady trip as a line through a dot for each hour and asks how far the traveler went or how long it took.
For distances and map walks you choose a grid from zero to six or from zero to ten and a length unit: plain units, centimeters or inches, or meters or feet, with the customary or metric setting choosing within each pair. Table graphs and stories always use the larger grid, and stories measure in miles or kilometers by that same setting. The easy setting asks for distances, the medium setting gives map walks in meters or feet, and the hard setting graphs a table. The number patterns and the coordinate plane worksheet makes a good warm-up.
Counting squares and naming moves
The worked steps subtract the coordinates that differ and count squares as a check, add or subtract for each move, and read across or down a graph.
- Count the squares between the marked places to confirm a subtraction.
- When a walk ends, say x first, then y, before writing the final point.
What students practise
I can sort and count things, read a graph, and answer questions about the data.
Students sort objects into categories, record counts with tally marks, pictures and bars, read the key or scale of a graph, and answer how many, how many more and which has the most.
Key words
- category
- a group of things that are alike
- tally mark
- a line that counts one; four lines and a slash make five
- key
- the part of a graph that tells what one symbol stands for
- scale
- the number each step on a graph stands for
- bar graph
- a graph that uses the length of bars to show counts
- line plot
- a graph with an X above a number for each measurement
Common mistakes
- Counts the symbols on a scaled picture graph and ignores what each one stands for.
- Reads a bar that ends on a line as if it ended between two lines.
- Reports the value under a stack instead of how many X marks are in the stack.
Standards
Common Core State Standards this worksheet practises.
- 5.G.A.2: Represent real world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation.
Related topics
- Before this: Number patterns and the coordinate plane (Grade 5)