Subtracting: Taking Away

➕ Addition & Subtraction

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Subtraction means taking some objects away and finding what is left.

When we SUBTRACT, we start with a group and take some away. The − sign means "take away." Our job is to find how many are LEFT after we take some.

We start with 5 cookies:

🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

We eat 2 cookies … 🍪🍪 are gone! Only 3 remain.

5 - 2 = 3

🐦Birds on a branch

6 birds sit on a branch. 🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦
2 birds fly away. 🐦🐦 ✈️

6 − 2 = 4

Now there are 4 birds left.

How to subtract:

1Start with the bigger number (the total)

2Count back the number you are taking away

3Stop counting — the number you land on is the answer

✏️ Try It!

There are 7 🎈 balloons. 3 float away. How many are left?

💡

Remember This!

Tell the story: "We HAD ___, we LOST ___, so NOW we have ___." Stories make subtraction easy to picture!

Take Quiz 📝 — 25 Questions