Three-Digit Subtraction Lesson Plans

Help your students subtract with confidence by sharing two different strategies. Use this lesson to build on students’ understanding of subtraction and to evaluate this key skill.

Let’s make subtraction real! In this lesson, students dive into three-digit subtraction by solving real-world word problems.

Use this lesson to teach your students how to determine if they should use addition, subtraction, or both operations to solve a word problem by following four simple steps.

Help your students understand place values with this lesson that catches their interest using a story book. Students will go one to play a riddle game both in a group and individually.

Help students gain confidence in recognizing multiples of 10 as they critique a flawed response. Use as a stand-alone scaffolded EL support lesson or prior to teaching Big Spenders.

Many students cringe when they see a subtraction problem with multiple zeros. The “Subtract One” strategy in this lesson involves reducing the top number by one to turn the 0 digits into 9’s and then adding the one back in at the end.

In this lesson, students must become detectives to solve for the missing number in each subtraction problem. They will develop and use their powers of mathematical reasoning using number bonds to find differences.

Get your students comfortable with discussing multiple strategies to solve subtraction problems with this lesson on two- and three-digit subtraction. It may be taught independently or as support for the lesson Subtraction with Regrouping.

Get ready to do some shopping! In this lesson, students will learn about subtracting 100 from multiples of 100 when making big purchases.

Students will have fun adding larger numbers using an open number line, first by practicing and then playing a dice game in pairs or triads called Go Froggie!

Master rounding and estimating skills by having students challenge their classmates in the Make a Big Difference game. Roll three dice two times to arrive at two three-digit numbers. The largest difference wins!

What exactly does the number 97 mean? How about 454? In this lesson, students explore how two-digit numbers are made up of tens and ones. Then they use this understanding to subtract numbers within 1000.

This lesson will help students build an understanding of multiples as they learn how to subtract from multiples of 100!

Get ready for some mental math! Help students practice subtracting by ten by solving real-world problems involving dimes.

Start your students on subtracting three-digit numbers with this lesson that breaks the problems down by place values!

Use this lesson to help students build their speaking and listening skills as they learn how to critique a flawed response using discussion cards. Use this as a stand-alone support lesson or alongside the activity Break it Down!

Word problems can be overwhelming to students, but if they have a tool to help them, they can handle it! Use this as a stand alone lesson or alongside *Stepping Through Addition and Subtraction Word Problems*.

In this lesson, students will practice explaining the process of subtracting numbers up to 1,000 using base-ten blocks and peer feedback. Use this lesson on its own or as support to the lesson Fluently Subtracting within 1,000.

Planning a party can be exhausting! But even when the party is over, there can be a lot to do. In this lesson, students use subtraction to figure out what’s left at the end of a party.