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.
CAPS links
- Grade 1Subtracts from 20, putting the larger number first and counting back.
- Grade 2Subtracts from 99 using number lines, breaking down numbers and the link with addition.
- Grade 3Subtracts from 999, with rounding off in tens added to the strategies.
In the Foundation Phase, CAPS teaches subtraction through strategies such as counting back on a number line and breaking down numbers, with written number sentences to record them. In Grade 2, learners are given a number sentence and asked how they could solve it, so let children explain their way of finding 72 – 38 aloud.
Column subtraction is introduced in Grade 5 in CAPS, so use the stacked layout in line with your school’s plan, and the row layout for Foundation Phase mental strategies.
Summarised in our own words from the DBE’s CAPS for Mathematics, Foundation Phase and Intermediate Phase Grades 4–6 (2011).
