From facts to borrowing
- Within 10 and 20. Subtraction facts, like 13 – 5, a whole sheet at a time.
- Two digits, no regrouping. Every top digit is big enough: subtract the ones, then the tens.
- Two digits with regrouping. When the top ones digit is smaller, take one ten and make ten more ones.
- Three digits. The same steps across tens and hundreds.
Check by adding
Every subtraction has an addition hiding in it: if 72 – 38 = 34, then 34 + 38 = 72. Children who check their answers this way catch their own mistakes and learn how the two operations fit together. The addition worksheetsuse the same levels.
In the MATATAG curriculum
- Grade 1Subtraction as taking away within 20, then two-digit numbers below 100 without regrouping.
- Grade 2Numbers below 100 with regrouping, then numbers below 1000 with and without regrouping.
- Grade 3Numbers below 10,000, with estimating differences first.
Like addition, subtraction in Grade 1 stays free of regrouping, so choose Never for Grade 1 and Always or Mixed from Grade 2. The guide also frames subtraction as the inverse of addition in Grade 2, the same idea as checking by adding.
Grade 2 children solve one- and two-step word problems. Change at the sari-sari store, such as ₱50 minus ₱37, is a familiar way to make a subtraction with regrouping real.
Summarised in our own words from DepEd’s MATATAG Mathematics Curriculum Guide, Grades 1–10 (2023).
