Let’s Practise Adding and Subtracting Decimals

Learning to add and subtract decimals is a big milestone for primary school students! This is a real-life skill that comes in handy when it comes to working with money, buying fuel at the petrol station, using building materials when working on a project, etc. This set of task cards will help your students strengthen their addition and subtraction skills with multi-digit decimals.

Students will practise adding and subtracting decimals up to the thousandths place that are presented in a horizontal format. This encourages students to accurately line up the problem vertically while aligning decimals points and numbers. With some questions, students will need to add additional zeroes to the minuend or addend to solve the problem.

Through this activity, students will show they can fluently add and subtract multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource to support your maths lessons.

In addition to individual student work time, use these adding and subtracting decimals task cards to enhance learning through guided maths groups, whole class lessons or remote learning assignments. 

If you have a mixture of above and below-level learners, check out these suggestions for keeping students on track with the concepts: 

🆘 Support Struggling Students

Help students who need help understanding the concepts by providing grid paper to assist with proper number alignment. Students can then recognize when a blank space is included in the problem, which lends itself to adding additional zeros to solve them.

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

For students who need a bit of a challenge, encourage them to create their own addition and subtraction problems and trade with a classmate to solve.

🛴 Scoot Activity 

Place the cards around the room in numerical order and give each student a recording sheet. Assign students or pairs to a starting point card. Give students time to review the card and record their answer in the corresponding space on their paper. Students will rotate to the next card when you say, “SCOOT!” Continue in this manner until students return to their starting point. 

👋 Exit Ticket 

Use these cards as a formative assessment after your lesson. Pick a random assortment of cards and project them on the board for the whole class to see. Students can record their answers on a sheet of paper, sticky note, or their notebook. 

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the colour PDF, black and white PDF or editable Google Slides version of this resource. A recording sheet and answer key are also included with this download. 

Print on cardboard for added durability and longevity. Place all pieces in a folder or large envelope for easy access. 

To keep the task cards out of pockets or under desks, punch a hole in the corner of each to place them on a binder ring. 

Sustainability Tip: Print a few recording sheets on cardstock and slip them into write and wipe sleeves. Students can record their answers with a whiteboard marker, then erase and reuse them.  

This resource was created by Nicole Ellis, a Teach Starter Collaborator.