Find the Missing Number — Forest Creatures — Grade 1

This is subtraction with the taken-away part left blank. A group of foxes, deer and a hedgehog is shown with the number remaining; the child supplies how many were removed. It nudges a child past one-direction take-away toward seeing subtraction as a relationship — start, change, result — where any one can be the unknown. The forest creatures are concrete and the numbers within twenty, so the missing part is always reachable by counting, and a child can prove their answer rather than guess it.

Change-unknown subtraction builds the idea that start, change, and result are linked — that knowing two of them gives the third. A child who finds the amount removed is reasoning about that relationship, not just performing a take-away, which is exactly the Grade 1 growth this targets. Pictured forest creatures and within-twenty numbers keep it concrete.

Children who like forest creatures 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 fruits, or find the missing number with musical instruments. You can also browse every subtraction worksheet or the whole forest creatures collection for grade 1 — each sheet prints cleanly in black and white or plays online for free.