Home/Second Grade Math/Week 23: Three-digit subtraction/Lesson 3
K-5 friendly lesson
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Subtract across zeros

Subtracting across zeros means borrowing through zeros carefully, one place at a time.

Lesson 3

Concept

Example: 402 - 187 You cannot do 2 - 7, so regroup: - Borrow from hundreds through the tens. - 402 becomes 3 hundreds, 9 tens, 12 ones. Now subtract: - Ones: 12 - 7 = 5 - Tens: 9 - 8 = 1 - Hundreds: 3 - 1 = 2 Answer: 215 Write neatly by place value to avoid mistakes.

Try it

Subtract: 1. 300 - 124 2. 502 - 286 3. 700 - 358 4. 601 - 279