About This Worksheet
This worksheet gives sixth-grade students straightforward practice adding and subtracting decimals with the standard algorithm. Each problem requires students to pay close attention to place value and line up decimal points correctly before calculating. The numbers include different amounts of decimal places, which makes careful organization especially important. This is useful practice for students who understand decimal place value but still need to improve accuracy when working with larger numbers.
What Students Practice
Students solve a mixture of decimal addition and subtraction problems involving tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. They need to line up the decimal points, match the correct place-value columns, and regroup when necessary. Because the worksheet mixes addition and subtraction, students must also read the operation sign carefully instead of falling into a repeated pattern. The open work space allows students to rewrite each problem vertically before finding the answer.
Why This Matters
A small place-value mistake can completely change a decimal answer, so neat setup is just as important as knowing how to add or subtract. Students sometimes line up the last digits rather than the decimal points, especially when one number has more decimal places than another. This worksheet gives them repeated practice building the habit of organizing numbers by place value first. That skill is important for later work with money, measurement, scientific data, percent problems, and multi-step calculations.
Teaching Tips
Ask students to point to the decimal point in each number before they begin computing. If the number of decimal places is different, show them that zeros can be added as placeholders without changing the number’s value. It can also help to have students estimate an answer before calculating so they have a quick way to check whether the final result makes sense. Encourage neat vertical work because many decimal errors are really organization errors rather than calculation errors.
Curriculum Standards
This worksheet reinforces decimal computation skills that students developed in Grade 5 under CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NBT.B.7, which includes adding and subtracting decimals to hundredths using place-value understanding and written methods. At the sixth-grade level, this fluency supports CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.NS.B.3, which expects students to fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm. It therefore works well as review, intervention, or fluency practice early in a Grade 6 decimal unit.