Grade 2 Subtraction Vertical Format
Grade 2 subtraction vertical format sheet: 20 problems on two-digit subtraction within 100, two-digit subtraction with regrouping, three-digit subtraction within 1,000.
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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.
- 1.97−17
- 2.60−23
- 3.516−465
- 4.79−20
- 5.65−46
- 6.603−252
- 7.52−28
- 8.30−17
- 9.873−576
- 10.33−32
- 11.81−15
- 12.764−334
- 13.76−75
- 14.85−77
- 15.701−192
- 16.49−16
- 17.34−18
- 18.985−844
- 19.69−27
- 20.35−26
What this worksheet covers
There are twenty 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, twelve 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 985. Problems 7 and 14, for instance, are "52 - 28" and "85 - 77". Common Core 2.NBT.5 is the slot this page fills.
Skills practised
Grade 2 subtraction means two-digit subtraction within 100 with regrouping, and mental subtraction of 10 and 100. Specifically, the problems practise two-digit subtraction within 100, two-digit subtraction with regrouping, and three-digit subtraction within 1,000. Working the page asks a student to regroup past ten rather than counting up one at a time. Nineteen different answers appear across the twenty problems, so a student cannot copy one result down the page.
About the vertical format format
Vertical format stacks the two operands over a rule with space above for regrouped digits; the 20 problems, problem 7, "52 - 28" among them, sit four to a row. Column layout is the format regrouping was designed for; the trade has somewhere to be written.
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 11 is "81 - 15", Set B's is "70 - 34".
How to use this worksheet
Five focused minutes beats twenty distracted ones at grade 2. 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
Borrowing across a zero stalls: 603 − 127 is left half done or answered 586. Problem 14 on this grade 2 vertical format page, "85 - 77", is where to look for it.
There is nothing in the tens column to borrow from, and the two-step regroup has not been rehearsed.
Rewrite 603 as 5 hundreds, 9 tens and 13 ones before subtracting anything; the two-step trade is the whole skill here.
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
- Missing Number — Grade 2 Subtraction Missing Number, 24 problems
- Mixed Review — 2.MD.6 — Subtraction on a Number Line, 20 problems
- Word Problems — Grade 2 Subtraction Word Problems, 8 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 Vertical Format — grade 1, 20 problems
- Grade 3 Three-Digit Subtraction with Regrouping — grade 3, 20 problems
Vertical Format sheets in other grade 2 topics
No paywall and no account — download any set of this grade 2 subtraction vertical format, and the answers for all twenty problems are in the matching key.