Teachers can use pictures and other visuals for instruction purposes to help the students understand subtraction. Students can either draw their own pictures or look at a visual the teacher draws. The visual could include place-value charts or pictures representing place values to act as a reminder to students about how to solve math problems.
Teachers can use hands-on techniques to help make subtraction easier for second-grade students. For example, she can give students five candies each. She then tells them to eat two candies each and tell her how many are left. This helps the children understand that subtraction means taking away.
Interactive games, found online or installed in computers, can help teachers make math more interesting and give children a better understanding of the idea of subtraction. Online games usually include simple subtraction, and develop harder math skills after the students master the simplest forms.
Teachers can hand out worksheets that students can use to practice. The more students practice subtraction, the better they will understand the concept. Worksheets generally provide several subtraction problems that the students need to solve. Students can complete worksheets in class or as homework.