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Free 1st Grade Addition Worksheets (sums to 18)

This page makes free printable 1st grade addition worksheets on demand: press the button and you get a new sheet of 20 problems with a matching answer key, ready for US Letter or A4 paper. You will see items like 1 + 8 and 2 + 6 on the printed page, with 9 and 8 waiting on the answer key so nobody has to redo the arithmetic.

📄 1ST GRADE ADDITION WORKSHEETS — A NEW SHEET EVERY TIME YOU PRESS THE BUTTON
🎲 New set of problems

‘New set of problems’ opens the generator in its own tab. There you can change the problem count and turn the answer key on or off. ‘Print or save as PDF’ opens the print dialog — choose Save as PDF in the printer list to keep the file. The sheet fits US Letter and A4, and the answer key prints on its own page.

The skill behind these problems

Written addition is worth practising in columns — which is what these 1st grade addition worksheets ask for — even when a 1st grader can do it mentally, because the column layout is what makes four-digit work manageable later. A problem such as 7 + 8 is small enough to do mentally and worth writing out anyway.

Fluency in addition is usually described in two parts: knowing the single-digit facts by recall, and applying a written method to bigger numbers. This sheet exercises whichever of the two the number range implies — for 1 + 8 the answer 9 should come from memory, not from counting.

What separates a confident adder from a slow one is rarely the method; it is whether the number bonds underneath are automatic. Watch how long the child hesitates before writing the first digit of 8.

Addition is the first place a child meets the idea of a carried digit, and it is the skill every later algorithm leans on. A sheet like 1 + 8 looks small, but the habit it builds — line up the places, work right to left, record the carry — is the same habit that survives into multi-digit multiplication.

In US classrooms these 1st grade addition worksheets are commonly aligned with the addition strand of most US state standards for this grade, though the exact wording varies from state to state.

Six problems from the sheet in front of you

These six come from the sheet loaded on this page. Press the button and the numbers change, but the shape stays the same (single digits, 1 through 9).
#ProblemAnswerWhat to check
11 + 8 =9Watch for: treating a longer number as a bigger one
22 + 6 =8Check: adding right to left, then reading left to right
39 + 6 =15Look at: guessing on the near-tens
47 + 8 =15Ask about: forgetting the carried digit
57 + 9 =16Watch for: losing the place columns
69 + 8 =17Check: counting on from the wrong number

One problem worked through

Try 9 + 6 together before letting the child start alone. The answer to 9 + 6 is 15, and talking through how it was reached takes about a minute and saves several minutes of guessing later in the sheet.

The item 2 + 6 is worth doing slowly. The answer to 2 + 6 is 8, and the route to it is the route every other problem on this sheet takes — which is why the sheet has 20 of them rather than one.

Three things that go wrong here

Getting the most out of 8 minutes a day

  1. Use a pencil, not a pen. Children working on addition rethink far more often when erasing is allowed, and you get to see exactly where the rethinking happened on an item like 9 + 6.
  2. Stop the session at the time limit even if the sheet is unfinished, and note where the child got to. A half sheet done well is better data than a whole sheet rushed.
  3. Do not raise the number of problems until the accuracy is steady. Going from 20 correct-but-slow problems to more problems only multiplies the same mistake.
  4. Read the first two problems out loud together before starting the clock. It costs fifteen seconds and removes most of the 'I did not understand the question' errors.
  5. Re-print the same skill rather than the same sheet. Because the numbers change, a child who memorised that 1 + 8 gives 9 still has to actually calculate tomorrow.

About the answer key

The answer key is generated with the worksheet, not written by hand, so it always matches the sheet in front of you — 1 + 8 is listed as 9, 2 + 6 as 8, and so on down the page.

Every generated sheet carries its own key on a separate printed page, which lets a child self-mark without seeing the answers while they work.

Printing on US Letter or A4

To save these 1st grade addition worksheets instead of printing them, choose 'Save as PDF' in the printer list. You get the worksheet and the answer key as a single PDF, on Letter or A4 depending on your printer settings.

The sheet is laid out to fit one page on both US Letter and A4. Leave the browser scaling at 100% and turn headers and footers off, and the 20 problems land inside the margins on either paper size.

Frequently asked questions

Is mental or written addition better here?
Both, in that order — try it mentally, and write the column method when the numbers get too big to hold. A problem like 2 + 6 sits right on that boundary for many children.
Can I change how many problems are on the page?
Yes — the generator takes 10, 20 or 30 problems. Twenty is the default because it fits one page and suits a 8-minute drill.
Should my child use fingers for these?
At the start, yes. Fingers are a legitimate strategy for addition; the aim is that they stop being needed, and you see that happening when the time per sheet falls while the score holds — time an item like 7 + 9 to check.
How many different sheets can I make?
As many as you want. The numbers are randomised each time, so printing five sheets in a row gives five different sets of 20 problems on the same skill.

Print a sheet of 1st grade addition worksheets, run it for 8 minutes, mark it together, and come back tomorrow for a different set of numbers on the same skill.

More worksheets like this

→ Free 1st Grade Math Worksheets  ·  → Free Addition Worksheets

Free printable math worksheets from a working math academy director in Korea. Problems come from our own code, not from a published workbook. Every sheet prints on US Letter or A4 with its answer key. All worksheets · Worksheet generator · Korean site
Last updated: 2026-09-13