What is subtraction?

Subtraction is when you take some things away from a group, and you find out how many are left.

Imagine you have 5 cookies on your plate. You decide to eat 2 of them, poor cookies! Now, you want to know how many cookies are still there. That’s subtraction in action:

5 - 2 = 3

Think about your toys. If you have 7 toy cars, and you give 3 of them to a friend, you can count the ones left in your hand, that’s subtracting! You started with 7, gave away 3, so you now have 4.

Subtraction is like counting backwards. If you have 10 candies and eat one, you go from 10 to 9, that's subtraction happening in your mouth!

So next time you see a number with a minus sign (-), just remember: something is being taken away, and you're finding out what’s left behind.