Double Triple Digit Regrouping Subtraction Worksheet

Regrouping is the step where subtraction stops being a set of facts and becomes a procedure a child has to trust. When the digit on top is smaller than the digit below it, a student cannot subtract the column as it stands; they have to go next door, take a ten or a hundred, and rewrite the number before the column will work. This Regrouping Subtraction Worksheet is built so that every single problem needs that move. There is no problem a student can finish without it, which means nobody can practise the easy columns and skip the hard one.

Part A gives six problems in the standard vertical form, three with two-digit numbers and three with three-digit numbers, so a student meets regrouping across the tens and across the hundreds on the same page. Problem 3 subtracts from 60 and problem 5 subtracts from 702, the two cases children find hardest, because regrouping has to pass through a zero. Every digit is set in its own place-value column, on the worksheet and on the answer key alike, so the ones sit under the ones and the tens under the tens and a student can see at a glance whether their own work lines up. Part B then puts the same skill into two short word problems, each with a line for the answer and its unit, so the number a child writes has to make sense as miles or as inches. Use this 3rd grade place value subtraction page as morning work, as homework, or as a check before a unit test.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 6 vertical subtraction problems, every one requiring regrouping
• 3 two-digit and 3 three-digit problems, including two that regroup across a zero
• 2 word problems with an answer line and its unit

This Regrouping Subtraction Worksheet helps children in three ways. First, because every problem regroups, a student cannot get a run of right answers by avoiding the step, so a shaky procedure shows up on the page instead of hiding. Second, the two- and three-digit problems sit side by side, which makes the point that regrouping is one rule and not two: what a child does between the ones and the tens is exactly what they do between the tens and the hundreds. Third, the word problems attach a unit to the answer, so a student has to decide what the number counts, which is the part that a page of bare problems never asks.

A few ways to extend the page. Ask students to check each answer by adding it back to the number they subtracted, which turns every problem into its own proof. Have them circle the column where they had to regroup and say out loud what they traded. For the two problems that regroup through a zero, work one together with base-ten blocks so children can watch a hundred become ten tens. Then invite students to write a word problem of their own for problem 6 and trade with a partner.

Related Resources

• Double Digit Subtraction With Regrouping Worksheet
• Triple Digit Number Subtraction Regrouping Worksheet
• Subtraction Multi-Digit Regrouping Worksheet
• Counting Down From Twenty Song from Have Fun Teaching