Simple Subtraction-Single digit subtraction with all positive numbers

Think of the sheep herder again like back in the simple addition if you read that. He had a pile of rocks that represented all the sheep in the barn. As the sheep went out to pasture in the morning he took one rock away from the pile representing the sheep in the barn for each sheep that went out to pasture and put it in the out to pasture pile. You can use that same method to subtract. Say you want to know what 9-3=_. Take a pile of 9 pennies and take 3 of them out of the pile and set them aside. Now count the number of pennies left in the original pile. You should find that you have 6 pennies in that pile. You can use the scratch pad and number cards to help solve subtraction problems. Take 9-4=_. It will be easier to use all 1 cards for subtraction. Use the number 1 cards like they are rocks. Drag 9 number 1 cards into a group.

Take 4 of those cards away into another pile or into the recycle bin. Count the number of one cards you have left. You should have 5 number 1 cards left, which is the answer to 9-4.

The answer to a subtraction problem is called the difference. If you are asked "what is the difference between 7 and 2?", the answer would be 5 because 7-2=5. The number you take another number away from is called the Minuend. The number that you take away from another number is called the Subtrahend. The answer to a subtraction problem is called the difference.

You can use a number line to perform subtraction problems too. Try 10-4=. Start at the 10 marked on the right side of the 0 or origin on the number line, count 4 graduations to the left. You will find that you land on 6. Do these until you have them memorized and no longer need to count pennies or fingers and then when you do the larger subtraction problems you’ll find them to be made up of many of the problems you are doing now and not hard to do either. As mentioned earlier, when we see problems like 6-3=3 it is assumed that 6 and 3 are both the same kind of units. 6 oranges - 3 oranges = 3 oranges. We would not say, what is 6 apples - 3 oranges. We don't have to know what kind of units the numbers in a problem represent to solve it, we do need to think of them as being the same kind of unit though.

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