Math Worksheet with Zoo Animals: Add and Subtract with Symbols

This Grade 2 math worksheet turns a row of Zoo Animals into a small puzzle of values to add and subtract. The key explains what each picture is worth, and then the child solves expressions that string several symbols together with plus and minus signs. Step one is substitution: replace each Zoo Animals with its number. Step two is calculation: add and subtract in order to reach the total, which may climb toward forty. Carrying two operations and a few substitutions through one problem is true Grade 2 thinking, and the familiar pictures make it inviting rather than daunting. As your child reads the key, swaps each symbol for its value, and writes the answer, they practise the steady, confident calculating that the rest of their arithmetic year will build upon.

Here the expressions are a little longer, with four symbols to substitute before the child evaluates. Reading the key for the Zoo Animals, swapping each value in, and then adding and subtracting in turn keeps the child working with several numbers at once. It is exactly the multi-term solving that Grade 2 arithmetic is meant to strengthen.

If your child enjoys this math worksheet with Zoo Animals, there is plenty more to solve, at a pace that feels right. You can print the worksheet as a PDF to work on paper, or play the interactive version online, always free and with no sign-up. There are no timers and no scores: each child substitutes, adds, and subtracts in their own time, with warmth and no shame about a tricky problem. When this is easy, try a symbol math worksheet with Zoo Animals that uses longer expressions, or solve the same key with a fresh set of pictures. You can also browse every math worksheet to keep the adding and subtracting going, steadily and at your child's own pace.