Subtraction Maze Within 20: Help the Gingerbread Man

A candy land of pastel paths fills this maze. The gingerbread man starts at the green circle, next to a round badge with his number, and a cake waits at the far end. The paths pass stones, and each stone carries a subtraction within 20, such as 15 − 7. Cupcakes, donuts, lollipops, ice cream, candy canes and macarons decorate the land between the paths.

The rule is simple to say: step only on the subtractions whose answer is the gingerbread man's number. Every stone on the right road has that answer, and the wrong stones miss it by one or come from a common slip, so a child has to work each one out. Subtracting from teen numbers is where first graders build the strategies they will use for years, such as going back to 10 first. A short number line or counters on the table are a good support for the first few stones.

The page prints as a PDF, works as a screen version where the child drags the gingerbread man over the stones and presses Check, and comes with an answer key showing the right road in colour. In the same family, the giraffe maze practises sums that make 10, and the running-total maze adds and subtracts within 100. These are picture mazes with a story; square-grid mazes, dot-to-dot and word sorting have their own pages.