Find the Missing Number — Clothes — Grade 1

This sheet asks "how many were taken away?" Each row shows a starting group of shirts, socks and a hat and how many remain; the blank is the amount that left. To find it, a child counts on from the result back up to the start, or thinks of the take-away that fits — the first taste of working a subtraction backward. The clothes keep it concrete, and the numbers stay within twenty, so every missing-number answer is something a Grade 1 child can confirm by counting what is shown.

Working a subtraction backward — from result to the part that left — is how a child first sees that the same three numbers can be arranged more than one way. It is the seed of fact families, a Grade 1 idea, and finding the missing part with within-twenty clothes keeps that seed planted in counting the child can actually do.

Children who like clothes take to the puzzle of working backward, and it suits a child ready for a little more than plain take-away. When this feels easy, try find the missing number with desserts and sweets, or find the missing number with hospital things. You can also browse every subtraction worksheet or the whole clothes collection for grade 1 — each sheet prints cleanly in black and white or plays online for free.