Inside: Engaging ideas and activities to help your students master all the ways to make ten in no time.
My students stared blankly at me. I had just modeled how to use the make a ten to add strategy for the first time.
“So, uh- if we are adding 9 + 6, we just have to think about what 9 needs to make 10 and then subtract that from the 6 and then add the ten to whatever is left.”
More blank stares.
Wait, is that right? I wondered to myself as I felt heat rise to my cheeks. “Hold on everyone- let me just…” My mind frantically raced as I reworked the problem to see if I was explaining it correctly.
But… I was. I think?
They were confused and truthfully… so was I.
Let me explain. It was my first year of teaching common core math. My district had adopted a new math program filled with strategies I had never heard of before. I was learning myself as I worked through the curriculum with my students. I spent 95% of the time feeling lost.
But even during the 5% of the time that I wasn’t absolutely confused, my students sure were.
How could my students possibly use the make a ten strategy to add when they didn’t have all the ways to make ten mastered?
Our new math program assumed that all of the students had all the ways to make ten memorized. But, that clearly wasn’t the case and I needed to do some serious backtracking.
Before tackling more complicated strategies such as making ten and breaking apart to subtract, it is essential that students know all the ways to make ten by heart.
Thankfully, there are plenty of fun math activities you can do to help students master how to make ten. By incorporating a variety of activities into your teaching, you can make learning those more challenging math strategies a breeze for your students. Keep reading to discover some engaging math activities that will have your students mastering the skill of making ten in no time!
Table of Contents
1- A Rainbow of Possibilities: Organizing the Ways to Make Ten
The first thing you’ll want to do is give your students a hands-on opportunity to use manipulatives to see (and feel) all the different ways they can make ten. Provide students with counters in two different colors and guide them in discovering all the ways they can combine them to make ten.
Create an anchor chart to record all of the different ways they find. My favorite way to organize the ways is by writing each different way (in order) on a different arc of a rainbow.
Students will learn how to add two different quantities that add up to ten, as well as an opportunity to explore ways to decompose numbers into multiple ways. Reinforcing their new-found knowledge becomes easier with the fun rainbow visual- it catches the kids’ attention and helps them remember all the ways. 🌈
You can hang the anchor chart up in your room for students to refer to as they work on committing them all to memory. This will help keep those combinations top of mind and also give students something to refer to when learning more challenging strategies. (We need to reserve all the brain power we can!)
2- Brighten Your Classroom: Teach Addition with a Rainbow Craft
Adding a fun math craft to the mix is a great way to help students master the ways to make ten. Students can create their own rainbow craft and record the ways to make ten on it.
Completed rainbow crafts can be sent home so students can use them as a study guide or displayed on a bulletin board or around your classroom to be used as a reference. The rainbows colorful rainbows are sure to brighten your space!
You can grab my Rainbow Math Craft for Ways to Make Ten which includes all of the templates you need. Simply print the templates on colored paper or cardstock, guide students in gluing the pieces together using the included visual directions, and then support them as they record the ways to make ten on the arcs and clouds.
This craft is highly engaging and always a favorite in my classroom. Students have so much fun putting it together while also reinforcing combinations to ten.
Plus, it gives them something fun to look at while they practice learning all the ways to make ten.
3- Family Fun with Ten: Activities to Reinforce Ways to Make Ten
While giving students a chance to see and feel the ways to make ten in the classroom is a great way to support their learning, the reality is that they’ll need to practice at home as well.
Involve their families by sending a letter home at the beginning of the year which shares the importance of learning all the ways to make ten. List the combinations for them to refer to. This communicates the importance of their children learning these facts and allows them to provide reinforcement at home.
You may also want to include some fun ideas for activities they could do to help their children memorize the facts. Many families want to help their children learn but they don’t know where to start.
Suggested Activities for Practice at Home
- Ten frame practice: Use a ten frame (a simple grid with 10 squares) and have your child fill it in using two different colored counters to represent the different ways to make ten.
- Memory match game: Create a memory match game with cards that have different combinations that make ten. Your child can play the game with a partner or on their own.
- Ten flashcards: Create flashcards that show the different ways to make ten and practice them with your child daily.
- Addition practice: Use addition problems that equal ten and have your child solve them using manipulatives or other visual aids.
- Scavenger hunt: Hide cards with different combinations that make ten around the house or yard and have your child find them and practice saying the combinations.
- Ten Tower: Use two different colors of blocks or Legos to build a tower that has ten blocks and have your child take turns removing blocks and saying the combination that makes ten.
By getting parents involved in helping their children build their understanding of ways to make ten, students will have greater success mastering this important mathematical concept. 🙌 If you’d like to read more about involving the parents of your students in math instruction, check out my blog post on How to Teach Math Strategies for Problem-Solving and Involve Parents.
4- Keep the Practice Going with Friends of Ten Centers
So now you’ve taught the ways to make ten and you’ve sent suggestions for reinforcement at home to your students’ families. That’s a great start, but truly helping your students master all the ways to make ten is going to require a bit more than that. It’s going to take a lot of practice and exposure and you’ll need to repeatedly reinforce this skill so students don’t forget.
Using centers that focus on teaching the ways to make ten is a fantastic way to spiral review throughout the year.
Luckily, there are so many ways you can set up centers for your kiddos to practice “friends of ten”.
Math Center Activities for Ways to Make Ten
- Number Bonds Puzzles: Use manipulatives or drawings to create number bonds puzzles with numbers that add up to 10, and have students put the puzzles together. You can use large index cards and just write partners to ten on each side and then cut a zig-zag shape down the middle.
- Roll and Build: Have students roll a die and build towers using connecting cubes, with the goal of making a tower of 10 cubes. The number they roll is the number of cubes they should start with- and it’s up to them to figure out how many more they need in order to get up to 10.
- Memory Match: Create cards with different combinations that add up to 10, and have students play a matching game by turning over two cards at a time to try and find a match.
- Ten Towers: Provide students with linking cubes and have them build towers of 10, using different combinations of cubes.
- Ten-Frame Fill-Up: Provide students with ten-frames and counters, and have them fill up the ten-frame with different combinations of counters that add up to 10.
If you’re looking for a set of done-for-you centers that just require printing and cutting, you’ll definitely want to check out my Ways to Make Ten Activities resource. It includes ten different activities and centers that you and your students will love.
If you want to try one of the centers out for absolutely free, click here to check it out!
By integrating these activities and centers into your math instruction, you’ll provide your students with plenty of practice and understanding of the ways to make ten.
5- Engage Your Students with Fun Whole-Group Games
If you want to get your kids really fired up, consider playing a whole-group game. Nothing seems to be quite as motivating!
Around the World
One of my favorite games to play to help students learn all the way to make ten is Around the World.
- To prepare for this game, grab a set of index cards. Write a number from 0 to 10 on each card. (You should end up with 11 cards in all).
- To play the game, choose a student to be the first “Traveler”.
- Have the “Traveler” stand next to another student who remains seated at their desk or table. They are the first two players.
- Hold up one of the index cards so the “Traveler” and the student seated next to them can see it. The first student to shout out it’s partner to ten gets to be the “Traveler” and move to the next student.
- As each student successfully answers the question, they get to continue traveling around the classroom, giving all students a chance to compete.
- If the seated student gets it right, they get to be the “Traveler” and the other student must sit back down.
- The student who makes it all the way around the group wins! (Sometimes there is no clear winner- and that’s okay. This game is all about practicing a math skill, so actually EVERYONE is a winner in the end for growing their brains!)
Adding a little healthy competition into learning can provide an extra motivation boost for kids and also helps to keep reviewing fun and engaging for kids.
There are many other fun games you can use to reinforce your students’ learning of all the ways to make ten.
Other Games
- Make 10 Relay: Divide the class into two teams. Each team has a stack of number cards (0-10) face down at the front of the room. Have the teams gather in the back of the room. One student from each team runs to the front and grabs a number card. They bring it back to their team and they work together to determine what number they need to make 10. The first team to shout out the correct answer earns a point.
- Ten Frame Match: Create several different ten frames with different combinations that make 10. Cut them in half and give each student a piece. Have students match up with the person that has their partner to ten.
- Ten Frame Top-It: Give each student a blank ten frame and red/yellow counters. Tell the students a number from 0-10 and have them race to fill their ten frame with the number you gave and the number they need to fill it up. The first person to fill their card up correctly gets a point.
6- “Note”worthy Ways to Teach Making Ten with Music
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… when it comes to learning all the ways to make ten, repetition is vital. An easy way to continuously expose your students to the different ways to make ten is by incorporating a fun song into your daily routine.
I liked to do songs like this as part of my morning meeting, but really you can do it anytime you have a few minutes to spare.
There are tons of great videos with fun music on YouTube, (thank YOU Jack Hartman!).
Fun Videos for Learning Ways to Make Ten
- I Can Say My Number Pairs, by Jack Hartman
- Ways to Make 10 with My Doggie Ten, by Mrs. R’s Songs for Teaching
- What Numbers Make 10, by Jack Hartman
- I Like to Make 10, by Harry Kindergarten
- Friends of Ten, by Jack Hartman
With regular practice, playing games like this can also help kids remember ways to make ten off by heart!
Putting It All Together: Fun and Effective Ways to Teach Making Ten
I truly hope you’ve found this post helpful and that you will be able to use some of the ideas in your own classroom. I learned the hard way so you don’t have to!
Using fun crafts, center activities, games, and songs are great ways to help your students learn all the ways to make ten. This will free up their brain power so they can focus on learning all the steps in those more challenging strategies, such as making a ten to add and breaking apart to subtract.
Plus, you won’t have to stand in front of the class with a red face as I did, trying desperately to think on your feet when you’re students aren’t fully prepared. 😬🫥
Before you go, be sure to grab your free copy of one of my Ways to Make 10 Math Centers. This center is a great way to help students practice and master the skill of making ten!
