Taking Away with Objects Up to 10

Before children ever write a subtraction problem, they learn subtraction by doing it with their hands. "Taking away" means starting with a group of objects and removing some of them to see how many are left. This is the very first idea behind subtraction, and it works best when children can touch, move, or cross out real things instead of just looking at numbers.

In this lesson, every group has 10 objects or fewer, which keeps counting simple and lets kids focus on the action of taking away rather than on big numbers.

The process always follows the same three steps:

1. Count and set out the starting group of objects.
2. Take away (remove or cross out) the number of objects described in the problem.
3. Count the objects that are left over. That count is the answer.

Suppose a child has 7 blocks and takes away 3 of them. Removing 3 blocks from the pile of 7 leaves 4 blocks behind. Written as a subtraction fact later on, this becomes \( 7 - 3 = 4 \), but at this stage the child is simply counting what remains after physically taking pieces away.

Working with real, countable objects, such as counters, buttons, fingers, or drawn pictures, helps children build a true sense of quantity before they memorize any rule. When a child physically removes 2 counters from a group of 9 and recounts to find 7, they are experiencing subtraction as an action rather than as a symbol on a page. This concrete stage is an important step on the way to reading and solving problems with digits, which is covered in Subtracting with digits up to 10.

Once a child is comfortable taking away objects, the same idea shows up in short stories: "There were 8 ducks in the pond. 5 ducks swam away. How many ducks are left?" These stories, explored further in Subtraction word problems up to 10, use the exact same steps: count the start, take away, then count what is left.

Eventually, the picture of objects being taken away gets paired with symbols and numbers. Learning to turn a take-away picture into a written number sentence is the focus of Writing a subtraction statement up to 10, which builds directly on the object-based skills practiced here.

Try these simple practice ideas at home or in the classroom:

Use snacks, buttons, or toy blocks instead of worksheets whenever possible, since holding and moving real objects makes the action of taking away much clearer than a picture alone. Always start by counting the whole group out loud, then count again after removing objects, so the child hears both numbers and notices the group got smaller. Keep every group at 10 objects or fewer, and mix up which objects get taken away so children learn the idea works no matter which items are removed.

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• Kindergarten