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Subtraction worksheets
Subtraction is harder than addition for most children, and usually not for the reason adults assume. These free printable worksheets walk the whole path, from crossing out pictures to borrowing across a two-digit column.
- Answer keys included
- Reopen any sheet later
- Letter & A4 ready
In teaching order
Subtraction worksheets, easiest first
Each sheet assumes the one above it is comfortable. Start where your child is, not at the top.- − 1 = __ Picture subtraction Child does: Cross out pictures, then count what remains. See this worksheet
- 9 − 4 = __ Subtraction within 10 Child does: Solve small written take-away facts. See this worksheet
- 15 − 7 = __ Subtraction within 20 Child does: Solve subtraction facts that cross ten. See this worksheet
- 15 − __ = 8 Missing number subtraction Child does: Fill the missing number in a subtraction sentence. See this worksheet
- 46 − 23 = __ Subtraction without borrowing Child does: Subtract place by place without borrowing. See this worksheet
- 42 − 17 = __ Subtraction with borrowing Child does: Subtract two-digit numbers using regrouping. See this worksheet
How subtraction develops
Subtraction means two different things that look identical on paper. Taking away — I had eight, three are gone — is the version children meet first, and picture subtraction keeps it physical by letting a child cross out and count what remains. Difference — how much more is eight than three — is the same written problem asking a different question, and children who only ever meet take-away are the ones who freeze on word problems later.
Both counting back and counting up are legitimate. Counting back suits small takeaways like 9 − 2; counting up suits close pairs like 15 − 13, where counting back three times is slower and more error-prone than noticing the gap is two. Bridging through ten — 15 − 7 becomes 15 − 5 − 2 — is the counterpart of the make-ten move in addition, and it is what makes subtraction within 20 fast.
Written two-digit subtraction splits into two genuinely different jobs, which is why they have separate sheets here. Without borrowing, each column stands alone. With borrowing, a ten has to be unpacked into ones before the column can be done at all — and practising that in isolation, on sheets where every single problem borrows, is far more useful than a mixed page where a child can avoid the hard case.
Yours to change
Make a subtraction sheet that fits
Every sheet here can change level, theme, question count, and paper size. Each one prints with an answer key and a picnic basket code that reopens the exact same questions later.