Hey There, Can I Borrow a Zero?

In the stunningly wretched way that only a red-streaked quiz pinned to a note from your child’s teacher saying, “Can you go over this with your daughter?” can point out, it occurred to me that subtraction can be sub-categorized into more than just borrowing and non-borrowing problems. In fact, that whole scenario where borrowing from zero digits in the minuend, or borrowing across a zero, is down-right problematic. Witness the erasure strewn red nightmare that is tonight’s homework hour. To better categorize this, I added some new worksheets that introduce borrowing without needing to borrow across zeros. This should provide a gentle introduction to borrowing without introducing the extra mechanics necessary to borrow across multiple place values. Also, I created a set of worksheets that focus especially on borrowing across zero that were designed to drive a nail through tonight’s trouble spot. Keep your fingers crossed for this next unit test for me. New worksheets at the links below… Subtraction with Borrowing Without Crossing Zeros Subtraction Focusing on Borrowing Across Zeros