{FREE} 3-Digit Addition Challenges | Grades 3-5

Combine fun with a unique twist to help your kids practice 3-digit addition skills. This set of 3-digit addition challenges is not your typical worksheet.

Tired of boring addition worksheets full of practice problems? Your children are going to love this three-digit addition activity. The cut and paste aspect adds some fun, while random missing digits ramps up their thinking skills.

Many of us have children that struggle in math, some in the middle, and those that fly through difficult math problems. It is often hard to engage our high achievers, and support our children that need a little extra help.

I’m excited to share a three-digit addition activity that will change things up a little for our students. And make practicing three-digit addition a little more fun!

3-Digit Addition Challenges Prep-Work:

This is a simple activity that requires no prep-work.  Yay!

  • First, print off pages 3 – 6. Page six has all the numbers that will be glued onto pages three, four, and five.
  • Next, grab some scissors and glue.

And now you are ready to go.

Using the Three-Digit Addition Activity: 

I would recommend doing this activity after you have introduced three-digit addition and had them practice it, then it is time to switch things up a bit.

In this activity, each page includes 6 addition problems with 3-4 numbers missing in each problem. The twist is that it’s not just the solution that’s missingdigits from the addends are missing too!

Our sweet students get to figure out the digits that are missing and glue them in.

Before setting your kids lose to work these out, you might want to talk about strategy and how they might work out the missing numbers. Be sure to ask for their ideas, rather than instructing them on what to do.

Let’s Try It Out: An Example

Let’s take a look at this first problem. (And of course, we will start on the right)

  • You may notice that the first column has a blank space, a nine, and then a zero. So I have to figure out what number I can put in the space so that the one’s place in my sum will be zero. Obviously, I can not add anything to nine and get zero. And I can’t add a one-digit number by nine and get 20. So I’m solving for 9 + ? = 10. And of course, we know that 9 + 1 = 10 and I can place a 1 in the first column.
  • Now, we move to the middle column, and we have to remember something very important. Remember the 9 + 1= 10. We can only place the 0 in the ones place, so the one is carried over to the tens place. So I have 1 + ? + 5 = 4. Oh wait, that won’t work, so it must be 1 + ? + 5 = 14. And we can solve this by asking 14 – 6= 8.
  • Onto the last column. Once again we must remember that we had to carry a 1 (really 100), So when we are figuring out the answer, we must factor that extra number in. At first glance it looks like we will be doing 1 + ? + 7 = 6 But we know that this is not possible. So our sum will have to be 16. We can go ahead and a 1 to the hundreds place. Now we have to figure out the other missing digit. 1 + ? + 7 = 16. By doing subtraction again, we can see that our missing digit is 8. (16 – 8 = 8)

And that is how you might work through these three-digit addition challenges. It is a fun way to challenge our children and get them to *really think* about addition problems.

{Click HERE to go to my shop and grab this set of 3-Digit Addition Challenges!}

Need more practice and review for your third grader while they’re doing school at home? Try this simple plan that can be used over the course of 2-4 weeks. Everything you need is included to provide meaningful daily practice.

>>>Learn more about 3rd Grade Math at Home HERE

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