What is this skill?
Making 10 means finding the partner that goes with a number to make exactly ten: 7 and 3, 6 and 4, 8 and 2, and so on. A problem might look like 7 + ? = 10. In kindergarten, children often use a ten frame, a grid of ten boxes in two rows of five, so they can see how many boxes are filled and how many are still empty.
There are only a handful of pairs to learn: 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6, 5 and 5, plus 10 and 0. The goal by the end of kindergarten is for children to find these partners comfortably, often with pictures or fingers at first.
Why it matters
Ten is the most important number in our number system: we count in tens, write numbers in tens and ones, and add and subtract by working with tens. Knowing the pairs that make 10 is the basis of one of the most useful first-grade strategies, called making a ten: to add 8 + 5, take 2 from the 5 to make 10, then add the remaining 3 to get 13.
Later, the same idea helps with subtraction, mental math with bigger numbers and making change with money. It is a small set of facts with a very large payoff, which is why teachers return to it again and again.
Common mistakes
- Counting the filled boxes instead of the empty ones when finding the missing part. Point to the empty boxes and ask how many more are needed.
- Mixing up nearby pairs, such as thinking 6 and 3 make 10. Checking with ten fingers, holding up 6 and counting the ones still down, shows the partner is 4.
- Treating the question mark as an addition problem and adding the number shown to 10. Read it aloud together: "7 plus what makes 10?"
How to help at home
- Use fingers: hold up some fingers and ask how many more you need to make 10. Ten fingers make a natural ten frame.
- Draw a ten frame (two rows of five boxes) on paper. Put coins or cereal in some boxes and ask how many more are needed to fill it.
- Play "make 10" with a deck of cards, using only 1 (ace) to 9. Lay out cards face up and find pairs that make 10.
- Mention tens in daily life: ten toes, ten pins in bowling, ten dimes in a dollar. The more often ten shows up, the more natural it becomes.
Worked examples
These are real questions from the Tutorsaurus making 10 practice, with the answers worked out.
Example 1
9 + ? = 10
Choices: 0, 4, 3, 1
Answer: 1. 9 and 1 make 10.
Example 2
5 + ? = 10
Choices: 5, 6, 7, 4
Answer: 5. 5 and 5 make 10.
Example 3
1 + ? = 10
Choices: 7, 9, 6, 8
Answer: 9. 1 and 9 make 10.