CalcMonkey › Kids math games › Subtraction

Free subtraction games for kids

The race above is set to subtraction facts only. Choose 1st grade for facts within 10 or 2nd grade for facts within 20, and every right answer moves your monkey ahead of the parrot. Then try the step-by-step games below for counting back on a number line and subtracting bigger numbers with borrowing.

Games on this page

• 🏁 Jungle Race

  Subtraction facts only on this page — beat the parrot to the finish.

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• 🐾 Number Line Hop

  1st grade: hop backward on the number line to subtract.

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• 🧗 Column Climb

  2nd–4th grade: subtract column by column, with borrowing.

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• 🏠 Tens Treehouse

  Trade a bunch of 10 for 10 singles — the idea behind borrowing.

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Tips for parents and teachers

• Subtraction is the opposite of addition — “think addition” is often faster than counting back.
• For numbers that are close together, like 12 − 9, count up from the smaller number.
• Talk about “difference” as how far apart two numbers are.

Matching school standards

These games line up with these Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:

• 1.OA.B.4 Understand subtraction as an unknown-addend problem.
• 1.OA.C.6 Add and subtract within 20, with fluency within 10.
• 2.OA.B.2 Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.

Questions parents ask