Algebra Worksheets
Grades 2–6 · 2 printable sheets
Where the rules stop being optional. The order of operations decides what an expression even means — 2 + 3 × 4 is 14 or 20 depending on nothing but convention — and solving for x turns arithmetic into a method that can be checked rather than a result to be trusted. Two sheets, both of which a child will use in every year that follows.
What to expect
Expect the checking habit to be the real subject. Every equation on these sheets can be verified by putting the answer back into the original, and every multi-step expression can be rewritten one line at a time. Children who do both find their own mistakes; children who work in their heads do not.
Where to start
Start with Order of Operations, at the easy level and without brackets, until 2 + 3 × 4 is reliably 14. Solve for x then has something to stand on: undoing an equation in the right order is the same rule read backwards. Take one-step equations first, then two-step, then x on both sides.