From facts to borrowing
- Within 10 and 20. Subtraction facts, like 13 – 5, a whole sheet at a time.
- Two digits, no regrouping. Every top digit is big enough: subtract the ones, then the tens.
- Two digits with regrouping. When the top ones digit is smaller, take one ten and make ten more ones.
- Three digits. The same steps across tens and hundreds.
Check by adding
Every subtraction has an addition hiding in it: if 72 – 38 = 34, then 34 + 38 = 72. Children who check their answers this way catch their own mistakes and learn how the two operations fit together. The addition worksheetsuse the same levels.
In the Australian Curriculum
- FoundationModelling taking away with materials, and partitioning collections up to 10 (AC9MFN04).
- Year 1Adding and subtracting numbers within 20 with a range of strategies (AC9M1N04).
- Year 2Using addition facts to 20 to work out related subtraction facts (AC9M2A02).
- Year 3Mental strategies for bigger numbers (AC9M3A02), and subtracting with two- and three-digit numbers.
Australian teachers often call borrowing trading or renaming: one ten is traded for ten ones, and the number is renamed as 6 tens and 12 ones. Saying “trade” keeps the meaning clear, since nothing is borrowed and given back.
Version 9.0 links subtraction facts directly to addition facts in Year 2, so the Mixed setting, with both operations on one sheet, is a good fit for that year.
Summarised in our own words from the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, Version 9.0 (ACARA).
