One maker for every step
- Within 10. The facts children learn first, a whole sheet at a time.
- Within 20. Sums that cross ten, like 8 + 5 and 7 + 6.
- Two digits, no regrouping. Add the ones, then the tens.
- Two digits with regrouping. Ten ones make a ten: carry it to the next column.
- Three digits. The same steps with hundreds.
Stacked or in a row
Stacked problems line the digits up in columns, the way children learn written addition with regrouping. Problems in a row (47 + 25 = ___) suit mental math and fact practice. Both come with an answer key.
More addition
For younger children, picture addition has groups of pictures to count before the number sentence. For taking away, the subtraction worksheets work the same way, with or without borrowing.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC Grade 1Addition and subtraction to 20, using mental strategies such as counting on, making 10 and doubles.
- BC Grade 2Facts to 20 become fluent, and sums to 100 rely on place value, friendly numbers and an open number line.
- BC Grade 3Addition to 1000 with flexible strategies, regrouping included; by year end most students can recall addition facts to 20.
- ON Grade 2–3The Number strand works with numbers up to 200 in Grade 2 and up to 1,000 in Grade 3, and students solve problems with addition and subtraction.
Each province writes its own curriculum, so the grade where a skill lands depends on where you teach. Ontario and BC both put number sense ahead of speed: students explain how they added, often in a whole-class number talk, before anything is timed. BC’s curriculum lists strategies such as decomposing, compensating and regrouping rather than naming one written method.
A sheet of facts within 20 suits Grades 1 to 3 in either province. Two-digit sums with no regrouping fit Grade 2, and the three-digit sheets fit the end of Grade 2 in Ontario and Grade 3 in BC, when numbers reach 1,000.
Summarized in our own words from the BC Mathematics curriculum (Grades 1–3) and Ontario’s overview of The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics (2020).
