Making ten to add is an important addition strategy for students to master, as they develop mental math and math fluency. These fun activities and games are a great way to help them do just that! Let’s take 7 + 4 for example. Kids often struggle with problems that have sums above 10 because, well, they run out of fingers.

The “making 10 strategy” involves changing one of the numbers in an Addition problem into the number 10 in order to make the calculation easier. Example : Let’s find 7 + 6. Adding 3 to 7 will make it 10.

Want to help your students master ways to make 10? Check out these 6 engaging fall activities designed to help your students explore adding to 10.

To use the strategy, students decompose one of the addends to make a ten from the other. If you look at the example pictured below, the 4 is decomposed (split) into 3 and 1. The 3 is combined with the 7 to make 10, and then the 1 is added for 11.

Videos, examples, and solutions to help Kindergarten and Grade 1 kids learn to add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10 by using strategies such as making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14).