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.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC Grade 1Addition and subtraction to 20, and understanding that the two are related.
- BC Grade 2Subtraction to 100 with strategies such as compensating and adding up to find the difference.
- BC Grade 3Subtraction to 1000 with flexible strategies, regrouping included.
- ON Grade 2Solving problems with addition and subtraction, and making addition and subtraction statements equal.
BC’s curriculum lists adding up to find the difference as a Grade 2 strategy: for 72 – 38, count up from 38 to 40, then to 70, then to 72. Students who use it have a second way to reach the answers on these sheets, and it works well with an open number line.
You’ll hear both borrowing and regrouping in Canadian classrooms. BC’s curriculum uses regrouping, which has the advantage of meaning the same thing in addition and subtraction.
Summarized in our own words from the BC Mathematics curriculum (Grades 1–3) and Ontario’s overview of The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics (2020).
