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 maths 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.
CAPS links
- Grade RSolves story sums told aloud with answers up to 10, using counters and a physical number ladder.
- Grade 1Adds to 20, writes number sentences with +, – and =, and practises number bonds to 10.
- Grade 2Adds to 99 by building up and breaking down numbers, doubling and halving, and number lines.
- Grade 3Adds to 999 and practises bonds to 30, with rounding off in tens added to the strategies.
CAPS starts every Foundation Phase maths period with the whole class, for at least 20 minutes, much of it brisk mental mathematics. A row of facts within 10 or 20 fits that slot, or the independent work the rest of the class does while you sit with one ability group on the mat.
For written sums, CAPS lists strategies rather than one method in Grades 1 to 3, and only introduces column addition formally in Grade 5, starting with an expanded column method. Use the row layout to practise your class’s strategies, and keep the stacked layout for when your school begins columns.
Summarised in our own words from the DBE’s CAPS for Mathematics, Foundation Phase and Intermediate Phase Grades 4–6 (2011).
