Missing addend worksheet
Four picture equations where the empty box sits in the middle. The child counts the first group and the total, then writes how many more are needed. Pick your totals and pictures, then print. Free, no account, no ads.
Totals
Totals to 5 is the place to start and prints the largest pictures. Totals to 10 suits grade 1 and includes make-ten practice.
Pictures
Both groups in an equation use the same picture, so the child is completing a whole, not sorting.
Orientation
Missing Addend
Count the first group. Count the total. Write how many more are needed.
Quick Math Sheets
How it works
Each row is a picture equation with a twist: a group of pictures, a plus sign, an empty box, an equals sign, and the finished total group. The child counts the first group, counts the total, and works out how many more pictures are needed to make the two sides match. That number goes in the box. Nothing on the page gives the answer away, so every row is real practice.
Why the box moves
On an ordinary addition sheet the empty box always comes last, so children can start to believe the answer always lives at the end of an equation. Moving the box into the middle teaches something bigger: an equation is a statement about parts and a whole, and the unknown can be any part of it. Finding a missing part from the whole and the known part is the same thinking children will later use whenever a number is unknown. A natural way to solve it is counting on: say the first count, then keep counting up to the total and track how many counts it took.
Where it fits
This sheet follows picture addition, which teaches the equation shape with the box at the end, and it pairs naturally with picture subtraction. The totals-to-10 sheet includes make-ten rows, a key grade 1 skill. The kindergarten and grade 1 pages gather the resources for this age, and when pictures are no longer needed you can make an addition worksheet in seconds.
A simple routine