Counting Creatures Subtraction Worksheets

These worksheets are intended to help children follow up and practice their newly formed subtraction skills.  They were developed specifically for Kindergartners by a Kindergarten teacher, but of course may be used with any children that need this type of reinforcement for subtraction skills.  These worksheets may also be perfect for that special needs child that requires a worksheet with just a few problems on it, rather than 30 or 40 of the same thing over and over again. Most of the worksheets have only five or six equations on them, since children that are just learning are typically a bit slow at completing them.  Also, you will notice that the majority of the worksheets have spaces for the children to draw pictures to help them find the answers.  For example, there may be a large box with the equation “4 - 3 = __” in it. In this case, the children are taught to draw four things, (usually circles,) and then cross out three of them.  Then they count the ones that are left, and write the answer in the box. Downloads of all 85 pages include: Set 1 - 15 pages: In the first set of worksheets you’ll find they are in order of difficulty, because they progress from differences from three up to differences from eleven.  There is always something to color on the pages for the children that finish early!  We find that the children love to color the fun little creatures, and are often disappointed if they do not have time to do it, so the pictures also serve as a motivator.  In the second set of worksheets, you will find more problems per page, but no spaces for the children to draw pictures.  These worksheets also progress in difficulty, with larger numbers to work with on each one, but never going past differences from eleven.  And again, there is something to color on it for those that finish a bit early. Set 2 - 14 pages: The set of worksheets have some little “domino creatures” with spots on them.  The children start out with the correct number of dots, and then have to figure out how many they need to cross out in order to find the difference.  There are only six equations per page, so they do not take very long to complete.  The second set of worksheets has clams with pearls in it for the children to count and cross out instead of dominoes.  Both of these sets progress in difficulty, beginning with the smallest numbers and moving towards the largest.  But in this case, the children are never asked to find a difference greater than nine. Set 3 - 14 pages: This set features some cute little “dice bugs” with dots on them for the children to cross out. But these are a little trickier, because they have to formulate the equation based on the picture! So the first thing they must do is count all of the dots on the bug, and then write that number, since that is the minuend (the first number.) Then they have to count the number of dots that was crossed out, and write it down. That is the subtrahend (the second number.) Then they have to decide how many dots are left, and write them down as the difference (the answer.) The second set of worksheets is very simple in comparison to the previous set! All the children need to do is count the number of objects that are there and cross out the correct amount. After that, they just need to count the number of objects that are left and write the number. Set 4 - 15 pages: These worksheets are just fun! They have some subtraction problems written on monster body parts, and the children are supposed to color them based on the answer that they get. There is a color code given on each page, so they can also practice reading the color words. Heidi always tells her students that they should not color any of it until an adult has checked their answers to see if they are correct FIRST. THEN they can color it!  And then, if they run out of time to color it, that is no big deal.  The second set of worksheets have a large space for the children to draw their pictures and figure out the answers to the equations on the page. There are examples of objects for the children to color, but when Heidi demonstrates this for the children, she always shows them to do it with just circles.  After that, the children that are a bit more precocious may choose to draw stars, hearts, or something more if they work quickly and have time. Set 5 - 27 pages: This set was definitely a class favorite!  The children love to blacken or cross out the monster’s teeth and decorate their faces! This goes along very well with the other monster faces with the different numbers of teeth on pages 9-14.  Heidi used these pages by putting them in page protectors, and having the children roll a die to figure out how many teeth to blacken or cross out with dry erase markers.  They did this several times to get the idea, passing the different monster pages around from child to child, just for fun!  (Heidi used some blank wooden cubes and wrote the numbers zero through five on the faces of them to make the appropriate dice.)  There are also more worksheets that go with each monster face on pages 15-20.  The second set of worksheets is a bit trickier!  The children must count all of the creatures or objects to figure out which number is the minuend, then count the number of objects that was already crossed out to find the subtrahend.  After that, they must find the difference by counting the number of objects that have not been crossed out at all. Check out Heidi's blog for more information on Counting Creatures: -Monster Teeth Subtraction! And a Brand New HeidiSongs Subtraction Book! -Kindergarten Homework- The Easy Way! Available Formats Sets 1-5 - Printable Download - $12.00 • Includes Downloadable, Digital Files (.pdf) of all 5 sets - 90 pages total ©Heidi Butkus - All HeidiSongs materials, including CDs, DVDs, streaming media, printable files and printed books, are for use in ONE classroom. HeidiSongs Copyright Policy is here.