Subtraction Regrouping Song | 2nd Grade - 3rd Grade

Farmer Jerry loves to rap about subtraction with regrouping as much as he hates getting chased by those pesky bees! Listen to Farmer Jimmy spin some slick rhymes as he shows us what's going on when we regroup with subtraction. Come along and take a visit to the farm with us, you'll be glad you did!

Song Lyrics:

Thirty hens were hanging in their chicken pen
When eleven of them suddenly jumped over the fence.
How many hens remained in the pen?
To figure out the difference, we’ll use subtraction.

Zero minus one can't be done
Because the top number’s smaller than the bottom one.
So we regroup a ten into ten ones
When the top number’s smaller in subtraction.

(Nineteen hens stayed in the pen!)

There were twenty bumble bees flying all around me.
I yelled, “shoo!” and two decided to leave.
Then how many bumble bees were chasing me?
If we regroup, we can find the difference with ease.

Zero minus two, here’s what to do,
‘cause the zero is smaller than the two.
So we regroup a ten into ten ones
When the top number’s smaller in subtraction.

(Eighteen bees are still chasing me)

Learn More

This song targets TEKS and Common Core learning standards from 2nd Grade to 3rd Grade. Look into the relevant standards here, or dig deeper into Subtraction here.

If you are interested in getting ideas on how to plan a robust standards-aligned Subtraction with Regrouping lesson, we recommend checking out Instructure's recommendations for common core standards 2.NBT.5, 2.NBT.7 and 3.NBT.2 . These pages help break down standard language, lay out the grade-appropriate level of rigor for each concept, and offer a variety of suggestions for activities (lesson seeds) that help students achieve their learning targets.

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