Subtraction hides inside more kinds of story than addition does — taking away, finding how many are left, and comparing two amounts all subtract. These free printable worksheets practice spotting subtraction in each of those disguises.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
Some problems are plain take-aways: a few berries fall out of a basket, and the child finds what is left. Others ask how many more are needed to reach a target, or how many more one character has than another. Those last two are the ones children reach for addition on by mistake, so the sheets mix them in deliberately — the point is to decide the operation, not to be told it.
Numbers stay small and every answer stays positive, so a child is never subtracting a bigger number from a smaller one or landing below zero. The result is always something they could act out with counters if they wanted to, which keeps subtraction concrete while the reading gets harder.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Subtraction word problems, step by step