Subtraction Teaching Resources

Browse subtraction worksheets, games and more teacher-created activities for your lesson plans!

Aligned with both the TEKS and Common Core curriculums, each resource in this subtraction collection has been carefully reviewed and curated by our expert teachers to ensure it's ready to use with your students. Browse printables and digital activities for teaching students how to take away, use subtraction to compare quantities, subtract two-digit numbers with regrouping, solve word problems and so much more!

Whether you're teaching your 1st grade class to add and subtract within 20 or your 3rd graders how to fluently subtract within 1,000, or you're explaining to a 6th grade group how to add or subtract integers on a number line, there are plenty of options for your planning.

New to teaching subtraction, or just looking for new ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a kid-friendly definition to explain what it means to subtract, plus a look at the subtraction sign and more math vocabulary for teaching kids this whole number operation.

What Is Subtraction? A Kid-Friendly Definition

If you're teaching in the early grades and introducing subtraction for the very first time, you may need a definition that can help you explain what it means to subtract numbers.

Subtraction is a math operation we can use when we have a number and we want to find out what's left when we take away another number.

For example, let's say you have 5 toys, and your friend takes 2 of them home. How can you determine how many toys are left? You can use subtraction!

If you subtract 2 from the number 5, you are left with 3.

What Is the Subtraction Sign Called?

There are several math symbols and signs that help us understand the relationships between numbers in our math problems. Students should learn early on to identify the subtraction symbol, which is called the minus sign.

The minus sign (-) looks like a short line.

When it is placed between two numbers, it lets us know that we should subtract the number on the right from the number on the left.

The words The subtraction sign is called a minus sign. It looks like a short line between two numbers. appear beside an illustration of the minus sign with a smiling face

For example, look at the subtraction problem below:

In this problem, the minus sign tells us that you will need to subtract — or take away — 3 from the number 6.

What Is the Answer to a Subtraction Problem Called?

Teaching math in elementary or middle school involves teaching a significant amount of math vocabulary!

When it comes to subtraction, one word kids need to learn early on is "difference" — this is the word we use for the answer to a subtraction problem.

What Are the Numbers Called in Subtraction?

Words like subtraction, difference and minus are commonly used in the classroom, but what about the numbers in a subtraction problem?

These are not typically taught to students, but keeping the names of the numbers in a subtraction problem in your back pocket can be helpful anyway!

Minuend — This is the number on the left in a subtraction problem. It is the number that you are "taking away" from.
Subtrahend — This is the number on the right in a subtraction problem. It is the number that you are "taking away."

Teaching Kids How to Subtract — 3 Fun Ideas From Our Teacher Team

Looking for some tips on teaching subtraction? This collection of resources is full of ideas from our expert math teachers, but we didn't stop there.

Here are some tips that may help you teach kids how to subtract and build fluency!

1. Focus on Missing Addends

Missing addend addition is sometimes easier for kids to grasp when tackling subtraction problems.

For example, rather than 17 - 8, gear your students to think, "8 plus what equals 17?"

2. Teach Regrouping With Base-10 Blocks

Students need to understand they aren't changing the value of the minuend in the subtraction problem, just what it looks like. For example, 42 is still 42, even if it's represented as 30 + 12 instead of 40 + 2.

This is where it helps to teach the concept of regrouping using Base-10 blocks.

3. Use Subtraction Rhymes

Using fun rhymes as mnemonics in subtraction can help your student remember the rules. Here's one of our favorites for teaching students subtraction with regrouping: