Subtraction within 5

What is subtraction?

Subtraction is taking away one number from another.

Lilly has 4 balloons, but then one flys away.

How many does she have left?

You can use subtraction to find the answer.

First there were 4 balloons. Then 1 flew away. Now there are 3 balloons left.

You can write this as a number sentence like this:

4 - 1 = 3

The sign for subtraction is '–'.

Quiz: Subtraction

Have a go at this subtraction quiz. Then work through the page and see if you can beat your score.

Taking away

Amir has 5 books. He gives 2 books to Fatima.

How many books does Amir have left?

Let's use subtraction again to work out the answer.

First Amir has 5 books, then he gives 2 books to Fatima.

Let's count how many books Amir has left.

Amir has 3 books left.

5 take away 2 is 3.

You could write this as a number sentence:

5 - 2 = 3

Finding the difference

Subtraction gives you the difference between two numbers.

For example, here are 5 red counters and 3 blue counters.

To work out how many more red counters you have than blue counters, you need to find the difference between these two numbers.

A bar model can help you compare them.

The difference between 5 and 3 is 2.

5 – 3 = 2

So there are 2 more red counters than blue counters.

Remember, you can use subtraction to find the difference between two numbers.

Subtraction facts to 5

There are four flowers in this field.

If the cow eats one, how many are left?

Let's put them in a line to help make things easier to see.

4 minus 1 is 3.

This shows the subtraction fact:

4 -1 = 3

Now look at these other subtraction facts.

What do you notice?

Did you notice the numbers subtracted count on from 0 to 4 and the answers count back from 4 to 0?

Example 3

Here are 4 footballs and 2 beach balls.