3 Digit Subtraction Worksheet with Borrowing (Free Printable)

How to use this

• What it builds

  Three-digit subtraction is where borrowing stops being a single trick and becomes a routine the child has to run column by column: check the ones, borrow from the tens if needed, then check the tens, and borrow from the hundreds. Five of the six problems need two borrows, and 603 - 247 asks the child to borrow across a zero, which is the point where most errors happen. The first problem needs only one borrow so a child can start with a win. The stacked layout, with ones under ones, tens under tens and hundreds under hundreds, is the standard written method used in second- and third-grade classrooms, so this page doubles as practice for school worksheets and tests. An answer page is included so a grown-up can check quickly, or a child can check their own work.

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• Ready when

  A child who can do 2-digit subtraction with borrowing without help and understands that 465 is 4 hundreds, 6 tens and 5 ones, usually around seven or eight. The 2-digit regrouping sheet in this set is the step before it.

• How to run it

  Print page one. Work the first problem together on scratch paper: look at the ones column, ask whether 5 can lose 8, and if not borrow a ten. Let the child do the rest alone, using scratch paper beside each problem for the borrowing marks. Ten to fifteen minutes covers the page. Keep page two back until they have finished, then check together. If an answer is wrong, ask which column needed borrowing and see where it went wrong, since forgetting to reduce the tens after borrowing from them is the usual slip. Both UK (A4) and US (Letter) paper sizes print from the same download.

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