Grade 2 Subtraction Missing Number
Grade 2 subtraction missing number sheet: 24 problems on two-digit subtraction within 100.
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Three different problem sets — same skill, same layout, fresh numbers.
Preview — Set A
Find the number that belongs in each blank.
- 1.38 - ___ = 10
- 2.___ - 20 = 13
- 3.77 - ___ = 23
- 4.62 - 30 = ___
- 5.___ - 24 = 3
- 6.35 - 31 = ___
- 7.95 - ___ = 53
- 8.53 - 27 = ___
- 9.77 - ___ = 48
- 10.26 - ___ = 6
- 11.41 - ___ = 30
- 12.46 - 21 = ___
- 13.60 - ___ = 31
- 14.21 - ___ = 9
- 15.83 - ___ = 32
- 16.___ - 12 = 8
- 17.87 - ___ = 17
- 18.47 - ___ = 23
- 19.___ - 24 = 28
- 20.75 - ___ = 48
- 21.35 - 14 = ___
- 22.20 - 11 = ___
- 23.___ - 10 = 15
- 24.___ - 22 = 30
What this worksheet covers
There are 24 subtraction problems here — one page to work, one page of answers to check against — and Sets B and C repeat the layout with different numbers. Within that, the blank moves between positions from problem to problem, so no single procedure clears the page and the numbers run as high as 95. Problems 9 and 17, for instance, are "77 - ___ = 48" and "87 - ___ = 17". It is written against Common Core 2.NBT.5 — Number & Operations in Base Ten, grade 2.
Skills practised
Grade 2 subtraction means two-digit subtraction within 100 with regrouping, and mental subtraction of 10 and 100. What a student is asked to do here is two-digit subtraction within 100. Concretely, the sheet tests whether a student can reason backwards from a result to a missing part. Nineteen different answers appear across the 24 problems, so a student cannot copy one result down the page.
About the missing number format
Each of the 24 problems has a blank, and the blank is not always at the end: problem 9, "77 - ___ = 48" puts it where the student has to reason backwards. Blanks in the minuend or subtrahend force the student to think of subtraction as a missing part, which is the idea behind every later inverse operation.
Set A, Set B and Set C
All three sets are produced by the site's deterministic generator from a fixed seed, so they are the same every time the site is built and the answer keys are exact. Where Set A's problem 13 is "60 - ___ = 31", Set B's is "41 - ___ = 7".
How to use this worksheet
Grade 2 attention runs short, so split these 24 subtraction problems over two or three sittings rather than pushing through in one; a number line or counters within reach is a strategy, not a failure. Date the missing number before filing it. Set C from six weeks later is the cheapest evidence you have that the subtraction stuck.
One mistake to watch for
Subtraction facts are recomputed by counting back one at a time. Problem 17 on this grade 2 missing number page, "87 - ___ = 17", is where to look for it.
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 2 subtraction formats
The same skill in the other formats available at this grade.
- Drill — Grade 2 Subtraction Practice, 20 problems
- Timed Drill — Grade 2 Subtraction Timed Drill, 60 problems
- Mixed Review — 2.MD.6 — Subtraction on a Number Line, 20 problems
- Word Problems — Grade 2 Subtraction Word Problems, 8 problems
- Vertical Format — Grade 2 Subtraction Vertical Format, 20 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.
- Grade 1 Subtraction Missing Number — grade 1, 24 problems
- Grade 3 Subtraction Missing Number — grade 3, 24 problems
Missing Number sheets in other grade 2 topics
No paywall and no account — download any set of this grade 2 subtraction missing number, and the answers for all 24 problems are in the matching key.