Addition and subtraction word problems – up to 20

Learn with an example

⛱️ When Anne went to bed, there were 14 gulls on the lake. That night, a flock of 3 geese joined them.

How many birds were on the lake when Anne woke up?

___ birds

  • Add the number of gulls and the number of geese.
  • Add: 14 + 3=___
  • You can count up to add. Start from 14 and count up to 3:
  • 14, 15, 16, 17
  • 14 + 3=17
  • The sum is 17. When Anne woke up, there were 17 birds on the lake.

⛱️ On the first day of school, students used 12 small paperclips and 2 large paperclips.

How many paper clips did they use that day?

___ paperclips

  • Add the number of paper clips.
  • Add:
  • 12 + 2=___
  • You can count up to add. Start from 12 and count up to 2:
  • 12, 13, 14
  • 12 + 2=14
  • The sum is 14. The students used 14 paper clips.

⛱️ Jake flipped a coin and got heads on 14 flips. He did a total of 16 flips.

How many of the flips were tails?

___ flips

  • Subtract the number of flips that were heads from the total number of flips.
  • Subtract:
  • 16 − 14=
  • Subtract the ones.
  • 1 6 – 1 4=2
  • Subtract the tens.
  • 1 6 – 1 4 =0 2
  • The difference is 2. 2 of the flips came up tails.

Let’s practice!🖊️