Equations with a blank in place of one number: choose the operation, where the gap falls and the number range, then print with a live preview and an answer key.
Grade 1–Grade 4 · every refresh draws a new set · answer key included
Missing number worksheets
Write the number that makes each statement true.
13+=16
19+=28
15+=18
16+=22
15+=19
8+=27
4+=18
17+=27
2+=13
2+=17
6+=23
19+=26
11+=12
9+=27
2+=16
16+=23
7+=25
1+=12
7+=23
14+=17
Missing number worksheets — answer key
Write the number that makes each statement true.
13+3=16
19+9=28
15+3=18
16+6=22
15+4=19
8+19=27
4+14=18
17+10=27
2+11=13
2+15=17
6+17=23
19+7=26
11+1=12
9+18=27
2+14=16
16+7=23
7+18=25
1+11=12
7+16=23
14+3=17
20 problems · US Letter · answer key — 2 sheets, page breaks marked in the preview
A missing number problem looks like the same arithmetic rearranged, and it is not. Asking a pupil for 7 + __ = 12 is harder than asking for 12 − 7, even though the answer is identical, because the second question tells you what to do and the first one does not. That gap is exactly the point: it is where children stop applying a procedure and start reasoning about what an equation says. This generator lets you put the blank anywhere in the statement, keep it in one place while the idea is new, and move it around once it is not.
Grade 1 to Grade 4, ages six to ten. Missing addends within 20 are first-year work. Missing factors and divisors follow the times tables, so Grade 3 upwards. The Anywhere setting is the hardest version and suits revision rather than teaching.
Choose the operation, then decide where the gap belongs. Second number is the gentlest — pupils read it as counting on. First number is harder, because it cannot be answered by working left to right at all. Answer turns the sheet back into ordinary practice, which is useful as a warm-up on the same page settings. Anywhere mixes all three and is the version to use once the class is comfortable. Keep the number range small at first: the difficulty here is the structure, not the size of the numbers.
The most common wrong answer is the result of doing the visible operation anyway: given 7 + __ = 12 a pupil writes 19. It is not carelessness, it is reading the equation as an instruction rather than a statement, and it is worth catching early. The second pattern is answering a missing-first-number subtraction by subtracting in the order the numbers appear. Both improve faster with a page where the gap stays in one place than with a page that moves it around.