1st Grade Math Worksheets

How to make it

1. Pick the operationsAddition and subtraction is preselected. Choose addition only for the first weeks of the year, or subtraction only once take-away is understood.
2. Set how big the numbers getNumbers up to 10 is the first grade fluency goal. Drop to 5 for a child who is still counting on fingers, or raise to 20 late in the year.
3. Print the sheet and the keyBigger print, fewer problems per row is on, so digits are easy to read and write. Print or save the PDF; the key comes on its own page.

What first grade math is about

Most of first grade math in US schools rests on one idea: numbers can be put together and taken apart. Children add and subtract within 20 and, by the end of the year, are expected to add and subtract within 10 quickly and accurately, which is the Common Core standard CCSS 1.OA.C.6. Alongside that they count to 120, starting from any number (CCSS 1.NBT.A.1), learn that the 4 in 47 means four tens, and tell time to the hour and half hour (CCSS 1.MD.B.3).

Those are the goals most 1st grade math worksheets serve, and they are what this page and the pages it links to cover. They are not a scope and sequence: schools order the year differently, and many spend the autumn on counting and the meaning of plus and minus before any timed practice. Use the sheets to support what the class is doing, not to race ahead of it.

How the sheet on this page is set up

The preset prints twenty problems in rows, written across like 7 + 2 = with a line for the answer, mixing addition and subtraction with numbers up to 10. Bigger print, fewer problems per row is ticked, because six-year-olds write large and need room for a two-digit answer. Subtraction never goes below zero, and a new sheet avoids repeating a problem while enough different ones exist.

The answer key is the same page with every answer printed in pink, so a parent can check a sheet at a glance or a child can mark their own work. Each sheet also prints the standard it practices and a Sheet number in the footer; the same number and settings bring back the identical page, which is useful when a child wants to try yesterday's sheet again and beat their own score.

From counting on to just knowing

Children pass through recognizable stages with these facts. First they count everything, then they count on from the larger number, then they use facts they know to work out the ones they do not, such as 6 + 7 as 6 + 6 + 1. Only after that do the facts become recall. A sheet of mixed facts is most useful in the last two stages; before that, objects, fingers and drawings do more good than a page of problems.

One way to tell where a child is: watch the first five problems. If every answer comes with visible counting, set Numbers up to 5 and choose addition only for a while. If answers come quickly but a few are wrong, keep the preset and look at which facts trip them up; the doubles and the pairs that make ten, such as 3 + 7 and 4 + 6, are worth practicing on their own. Knowing that 3 + 4 and 4 + 3 have the same answer (CCSS 1.OA.B.3) halves the number of facts to learn.

Other first grade math worksheets on the site

Several topic generators fit first grade with one or two settings changed. On addition worksheets, choose 1 digit for both numbers for single-digit sums, or 2 digits and None for regrouping late in the year when the class meets tens and ones. A hundreds chart with missing numbers supports counting to 100 and beyond, and the 101 to 200 option carries it on toward 120.

For time, clock worksheets set to the hour or the half hour match the first grade standard. Number line sheets counting by 1s or 2s give a picture of adding as moving along a line, which helps children who lose track while counting on. Each of these pages has its own answer key and its own note on the standard it practices.

A short, steady routine

Fact practice works best little and often. Five to ten minutes a day, four days a week, does more than a long sheet once a week. A simple pattern for home or a classroom: on Monday, print one sheet and its key; on Tuesday and Wednesday, press New variant for fresh problems with the same settings; on Thursday, reprint Monday's sheet from its Sheet number and compare the two. Children like seeing that a page which took ten minutes on Monday now takes six.

Keep the mood light. Let the child mark the sheet with the key, circle the facts that were slow rather than wrong, and stop while it is still easy. If a sheet becomes a struggle, it is the wrong sheet: lower the numbers or go back to one operation for a week.

Year 2 in England and Year 1 in Australia

Children in US first grade are about six to seven years old, the same age as Year 2 in England and Year 1 in Australia, and the number facts within 10 and 20 are a goal in all three. The Common Core code prints when the browser's language and time zone are American; elsewhere the sheet leaves it off, and the problems are the same.

When the facts within 10 are secure, the natural next step is 2nd grade math worksheets with numbers up to 20 and then within 100. For a child who finishes early, a page of number tracing practice for the teen numbers keeps the writing side of math neat, since reversed digits such as a backward 7 are still common at this age.

Common Core State Standards: © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.