Grade 1 Subtraction Vertical Format
Grade 1 subtraction vertical format sheet: 20 problems on subtraction within 20, two-digit minus one-digit without regrouping.
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Three different problem sets — same skill, same layout, fresh numbers.
Preview — Set A
Solve each problem. Line up the place values and show any regrouping.
- 1.7−6
- 2.68−2
- 3.4−3
- 4.80−1
- 5.6−1
- 6.90−1
- 7.20−1
- 8.54−3
- 9.8−6
- 10.95−5
- 11.14−5
- 12.13−1
- 13.12−6
- 14.25−5
- 15.9−3
- 16.74−2
- 17.13−5
- 18.19−1
- 19.13−8
- 20.42−2
What this worksheet covers
Twenty subtraction problems fill this vertical format page; problem 7 asks "20 - 1", and the sheet stays at that level throughout. Within that, seven of the twenty column problems need regrouping and the rest do not, so the two cases are mixed rather than blocked and the numbers run as high as 95. Further down, problem 14 asks "25 - 5". Common Core 1.OA.6 is the slot this page fills.
Skills practised
Grade 1 subtraction means facts within 20, unknown-addend equations, and subtracting multiples of ten. What a student is asked to do here is subtraction within 20 and two-digit minus one-digit without regrouping. Concretely, the sheet tests whether a student can regroup past ten rather than counting up one at a time. Seventeen different answers appear across the twenty problems, so a student cannot copy one result down the page.
About the vertical format format
The 20 problems here — problem 7, "20 - 1", for one — are printed in column form, the layout the standard algorithm is written for. Column layout is the format regrouping was designed for; the trade has somewhere to be written.
Set A, Set B and Set C
The three sets come from the same generator with three different seeds: same skill, same layout, fresh numbers, and an answer key computed with the problems. Where Set A's problem 11 is "14 - 5", Set B's is "2 - 1".
How to use this worksheet
Five focused minutes beats twenty distracted ones at grade 1. Fold this vertical format in half, do one part of the twenty problems today and the rest tomorrow, and let the student use fingers or counters if they want them. Ask the student to re-work one missed subtraction problem from scratch on Set B rather than correcting it in place; the second attempt shows whether the method changed.
One mistake to watch for
Subtraction facts are recomputed by counting back one at a time. On this grade 1 vertical format, problem 14 ("25 - 5") is the kind of item where it shows.
The relationship to addition has not been made explicit, so 13 − 8 is not being read as "8 plus what is 13".
Practise fact families as a unit, four equations at a time, and give unknown-addend problems alongside the subtraction ones.
Other grade 1 subtraction formats
The same skill in the other formats available at this grade.
- Drill — Subtracting Multiples of 10 — Grade 1 Practice, 22 problems
- Timed Drill — Grade 1 Subtraction Timed Drill, 60 problems
- Missing Number — Grade 1 Subtraction Missing Number, 24 problems
- Mixed Review — Grade 1 Subtraction Mixed Review, 24 problems
- Word Problems — Grade 1 Addition and Subtraction Word Problems, 12 problems
A step either side
The same format one grade down and one grade up — the easier sheet is often the faster fix when this one is not landing.
- Kindergarten Subtraction Vertical Format — kindergarten, 16 problems
- Grade 2 Subtraction Vertical Format — grade 2, 20 problems
Vertical Format sheets in other grade 1 topics
Six PDFs, no sign-up: three versions of this grade 1 subtraction vertical format and three answer keys, each twenty problems long.