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Lauren Piper

The Health Nut Teacher

Fun Ways to Teach Two-Digit Subtraction With Regrouping

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Two-Digit Subtraction With Regrouping

After four years of teaching second grade, one thing has stayed the same from year to year: my little munchkins always rock two-digit addition, but two-digit subtraction with regrouping always seems to bring a struggle! Obviously, the only way to help the struggle is to practice over and over and over again, which can be exhausting for both the students and the teacher.  I’m all about making everything into a game.  Everything! When you call it a game, the kiddos are instantly engaged.  I’ve snapped some pictures of some of my favorite two-digit subtraction games and activities we’ve been using the past couple weeks!
First up, we have a two-digit subtraction activity from my Second Grade GO Math Centers and Games: Chapter 5.   We used number lines to solve pizza slice equations to make a full pizza.  Everyone loves pizza and the kiddos mastered the number line. All of the games from my GO Math games are so easy to prep and use.  Check them out by clicking on the picture below!
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Double Digit Subtraction Regrouping

Next up is just some good ole fashioned practice for double digit subtraction regrouping.  These regrouping houses make this process so much easier for my kids! We also used my Second Grade Math Mini Anchor Charts to help us out.  It includes the following poem that I swear by:
More on top? No need to stop!
More on the floor? Go next door and get 10 more!
Numbers the same? Zeros the game! 
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You can also find these two digit subtraction regrouping mats in my
Here is a close up of my mini anchor chart rings.  They take some time to make for each student, but I love that they each have their own resource! The anchor charts are created based on each common core standard, and are numbered on the back for easy access.  Check them out HERE or click the pictures below!

Double Digit Subtraction Games

Also using the two digit subtraction regrouping mats from above, we played Race to Zero.  This game is so simple with no prep, but the kiddos really got into it! You simply partner the students up and write several equations on the board.  Each partner picks a different equation to solve. The player who has an answer closest to zero earns a point for that round.  So easy and gives them lots of practice!

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This last game was more popular than I expected! I called it Circle Subtraction.  The students were paired up and given a laminated hundreds chart with two different colored dry erase markers.

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Each student would circle a number and then create a subtraction equation to solve together.  Then they would also circle the answer to their equation.  No number can be circled twice!

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I set a fun timer from a cool website called Online Stopwatch (which they always beg for).  They loved trying to fill up the whole board before the timer went off! Once again, SO easy with little prep, yet so effective.

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Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t do anything in December without incorporating something related to Christmas. These Two-Digit Subtraction Ornaments gave plenty of extra practice without the boring worksheet! All you have to do is use your artistic skills to draw a big Christmas tree and you’re set. Get these two digit subtraction with regrouping ornaments FREE by clicking the pictures below!

2-Digit Subtraction Christmas Activities

 

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Now for my favorite activity of the week! This might be the easiest craft I’ve done all year.  We have been solving two-digit subtraction word problems using part-part-whole maps, so I of course decided that our part-part-whole maps needed to be cute.  All you need to make these adorable reindeer are two hands and a foot! Just have the kiddos trace their foot onto brown paper, and then trace two hands onto white/cream paper.

Add a nose and eyes and voila! Reindeer.  They each chose a word problem from their textbook to solve on their reindeer part-part-whole maps.  The antlers are the two parts and the head is the whole!
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Hands-on beats worksheets every time, y’all.  If your students are still struggling with two-digit subtraction, they may need more math fact practice. Check out this fun Boggle or Noggle game to give them more practice!