Taking away, festive style
By December, many kindergarteners have spent months on addition and are ready for subtraction. This sheet has 16 problems with numbers no bigger than 10, and every answer is zero or more. The problems are spaced widely, so children have room to draw a picture beside each one.
Tell it as a story
Subtraction clicks when children can see something disappearing. Try these stories:
- There are 8 cookies on the plate for Santa, and he eats 3. How many are left?
- There are 6 ornaments on the tree, and the cat knocks off 2. How many are still hanging?
- There are 9 presents under the tree, and you open 4. How many are still wrapped?
Act them out with real objects, then look at how the same story is written as 8 – 3 on the page.
Support for early learners
Let children draw circles for the first number and cross some out. Fingers work well too. If subtraction is still new, drop the number of problems to 8, so the page feels finished quickly.
Other December pages
For addition practice with the same border, try the addition within 20 page and set the largest number to 5.