Today we're going to subtract different colored peppers. For this activity, you need three paper cups, coloring markers, and green, yellow, and red art paper. Cut out circles from each color of art paper. You should make 20 green circles, 20 yellow circles, and 10 red circles.

Color one paper cup red, another yellow, and the last one green. Write the word hundreds on the red cup, tens on the yellow cup, and ones on the green cup. These cups will be the baskets for your peppers.

Now, let's use our peppers to solve the subtraction problem for the day!

Imagine that you have 326 peppers in red, yellow, and green. Each color of pepper represents a different place value. Red peppers are hundreds, yellow peppers are tens, and green peppers are ones. How many red peppers should be in the basket? How many yellow peppers? How many green peppers?

Before we move on, remember this rule: Peppers in the basket should have the same color as the basket.

Now, look back at the problem. You should have 326 peppers in the baskets, or 3 red peppers, 2 yellow peppers, and 6 green peppers.

You need to take out 129 peppers, or 1 red pepper, 2 yellow peppers, and 9 green peppers. First, let's subtract some green peppers. You have 6 green peppers in the basket, but you need to take out 9. This means you need to regroup (borrow) from the yellow peppers. Simple, right? We take 1 yellow pepper from the yellow basket and put it in the green basket. But remember the rule? Peppers in the basket should have the same color as the basket.

Here's what you do: exchange 1 yellow pepper with 10 green peppers from your extra stash.

1 yellow pepper = 10 green peppers

Now that we have 16 green peppers, we can take 9 out of the basket!

Next, look in the yellow basket. After regrouping, you have 1 yellow pepper left in there, but you still need to take out 2. You need to regroup from the red peppers this time, and you need to turn that red pepper yellow. This time, try doing it on your own. Remember, 1 red pepper = 10 yellow peppers.

After regrouping, you still need to take out 1 red pepper from the red basket. Finally, count how many red, yellow, and green peppers are left. The number of peppers in each basket should give you the answer to the subtraction problem. Hint: How many peppers are left when you take away 129 from 326 peppers?

Ready to move on to the next lesson?
 Three Digit Column Subtraction with One Regrouping