Subtraction Bingo

Math facts have always been difficult for my oldest to memorize.  So to take some of the drudgery out of memorizing those facts, I created Subtraction Bingo for him!

Since we both love the whole ‘game’ aspect of learning, a bingo game seemed to be just the right fit.  We played it several times today and it was such a hit!  It was a great game to reinforce his subtraction facts, but it was also great for my 4 year old to reinforce her colors and number recognition.  Much to her excitement, my 4 year old won most of the games!

I highly recommend that you print this game out on card stock.  And if you’re like me and know that you’re going to use it many, many times (especially for multiple children), go ahead and laminate the pieces.

From start to finish – laminating time included – it took me 20  minutes to print the game, laminate it and cut out the pieces.  Just make sure you allot yourself enough time to prepare it before everyone starts itching to play.

How to Play Subtraction Bingo

Instead of using the traditional B-I-N-G-O to name the columns, I used different colors of minus signs.  It is ‘Subtraction Bingo’ after all!  So the name of each column is the color+minus.

The game is played using traditional bingo rules: To win the player must have 5 spaces in a row, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

To start, the first player draws an equation, states the color and answers the equation aloud.

Example:  Davis draws a red 10-6.  He says to the other players: “Red 10-6 equals 4.  Red 4.”  Then everyone else looks on their boards to see if they have a Red 4.  If they do, they put a token on the space.

What’s Included in Subtraction Bingo

There are 6 different game boards (because it’s always fun to switch game boards!) to give it some variety.

Print as many of the token pages at the end as you need.  We only needed to print one sheet, but you might need to print more if you have more than 3 playing.

This game sucks up printer ink.  You can print it in ‘black ink only’ and then color the little minus signs with a marker if you truly don’t want to use this much colored ink.  Or print in ‘draft’ mode to help a little.  It’s prettier if printed in color but if you’re like me, you hate to use the printer ink because it’s so expensive! (And if you have a good source of cheap{er} printer ink, do tell.)

I trimmed the game boards carefully so they would fit in a plastic pencil case.  Now all of the pieces are  in a lidded container, which makes organizing so easy.

Mama’s Favorite Subtraction Resources

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Click the image to download your free Subtraction Bingo

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Lauren Hill

Lauren Hill is a Christian mom to 5, ages 19 to 7. She homeschools her children in the classical education tradition and is currently in her 15th year of homeschool. She creates engaging worksheets and hands-on printable activities for Preschool and Elementary age children to supplement their daily studies.

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