Subtraction with Toys — Kindergarten

Each line gives the child a group of balls, blocks and a teddy and some to take away by crossing out. They mark the ones that leave, then count the ones remaining to find how many are left. Doing the take-away with their own hand — rather than reading a minus sign — is how subtraction first makes sense at five and six, and keeping the groups small means the leftover toys can always be checked by counting.

Before a minus sign means anything, a child needs to feel that subtraction is taking away. Removing pictured toys by crossing them out and counting the rest builds exactly that feeling, and it lays the groundwork for seeing later how addition and subtraction undo each other. Totals within ten keep the whole idea checkable by counting.

Children who enjoy toys take to crossing out quickly, and it works as a calm hands-on task or a whole-class action on the board. When this feels easy, take some away in subtraction with trees, or try subtraction with accessories. You can also browse every subtraction worksheet or the whole toys collection for kindergarten — each sheet prints cleanly in black and white or plays online for free.