Word Problems

I usually give my students two numbers and a word so they can create their own word problem.  I have given some thought to using one Wednesday a month to have them create a set of word problems to accompany a odd news piece from Yahoo or other news source.  Last year, I created the problems that students solved after reading a news article. 
I found an article on dogs that look like lions selling for something like $100,000 each.  They calculated the cost per pound, cost per cubic inch, and cubic foot.  Another had to do with the cost of a cell phone bill due to the number of texts sent.  I think they calculated the per text price, the per day cost and a couple other.
The kids loved reading the articles and calculating these weird things.  Next year, I'll have them start with something I've done and then I"ll spend several Wednesdays teaching them to find the articles, decide what type of questions they can ask and then calculating the answer.  Once I have a good supply, I can use them in class so everyone can see what the others have done. 
I work with ELL students and this should help them increase their vocabulary.

Solving word problems and activities students can do.

Today as I worked with students on using the K (What do you know), F (What do you need to find,) C (What things do you have to consider), and W (the work).  I likened this to solving a murder mystery.  The K part is the dead body and what ever information you get from it such as it was a young woman who was strangled and found in the woods.  The K for us is the information we are given within the word problem.  The F is finding the murderer and in math the problem tells us what to find.  The C in a mystery is to think about everything, the evidence, the suspects, etc while in math it might be a formula, the operation,  an idea of how to attack it.  Finally is the work where in both mysteries and math, we do the work to find the answer. 
This lead me to the idea that perhaps I could have students create an actual mystery book in which the detective solves the crime using maybe book creator or other type of app.  This is an idea, I plan to play with before I have my students do it. Perhaps when they are done, we can have them share the completed stories with their families.