Taking away with animals

One group with part of it crossed out, and the equation beside it. The animals that went away stay on the page, so the answer can be counted rather than recalled.

Ages 5–7 · 2 pages

Download US Letter PDFor A4

How to use it

Taking away is harder to picture than adding, because the part that leaves is the part you can no longer see. Crossing out keeps all three numbers on the page at once — the whole group, the part that went, and the part that stayed — which is what makes the answer countable instead of remembered. Nothing here takes away more than four: ten animals in a row are already small, and seven crosses over them turn the row into a smudge with three survivors. Page two grows the group instead.

Every page in this pack

  1. Subtraction page 1: five rows of up to seven animals, the last few crossed out, with a box for the answer.

    Groups up to 7

  2. Subtraction page 2: five rows of up to ten animals, the last few crossed out, with a box for the answer.

    Groups up to 10

Printing notes

  • Print at 100%, not "fit to page" — scaling shrinks the digits and the whole point is that your child writes them at a steady size.
  • Black-and-white and draft mode are fine. Nothing on these sheets depends on colour.
  • Slide a sheet into a punched pocket and a dry-wipe pen turns one page into a hundred goes.

The thinking behind it

When Do Kids Learn Addition and Subtraction? Ages & Stages — Read the full guide