R.I.C.E. is a procedure to help students work through a problem logically.  The most difficult section is the last in which students are asked to explain HOW their thinking progressed and HOW they used the manipulatives, or the picture, or their number sense. 

For example, if they used counters, they need to explain how they relate to the story problem and how they used them to solve the problem. 

If they used their picture, they need to explain what they counted or what groups they used to solve the problem.  Pictures here are supposed to be useful sketches (not artwork) or possibly a chart.  Explaining their thinking is a higher order thinking skill that takes practice; it also helps a person know what they know.  (It’s important to remember that different people can use the same picture differently to arrive at an accurate solution.  Let children learn how to explain THEIR thinking, not yours.)

If they used mental math, they need to explain what they did, in the order that they did it.  This could mean writing words or numbers to show the skip counting, addition strategies, and/or the subtraction strategies that they used.

Given a story problem, students use the following table to work throught it.

Restate  What do you know?             What do we need to find out?

Illustrate (Draw a picture that shows the problem.)

Compute (Write a number sentence and solve it)

Explain (Tell how you used your manipulatives, picture, or mental math to solve the problem.  You are explaining your thinking.)