ArithmeticMaking 10
Name: Date:
Write the number that makes each one.
16 + = 10
24 + = 10
39 + = 10
45 + = 10
53 + = 10
67 + = 10
78 + = 10
82 + = 10
Make ten worksheets
Ten is the number everything else is measured against, and knowing its pairs by heart is what makes mental arithmetic possible later. These free printable worksheets ask for the partner every time: six and how many more make ten?
Kid stuck on one? You don’t just get the sheet.
Make ten
The answer key prints on a separate page.
What's on this sheet
There are only five pairs to learn — 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6, 5 and 5 — and they are worth learning as facts rather than working out each time. A child who knows them instantly can add 8 + 5 by taking 2 from the 5 to finish the ten, which is the bridging strategy that every later addition method rests on.
Why this sheet works
The pairs appear in both orders, so 6 + __ and 4 + __ both come up and neither becomes a position on the page to memorize. That matters more than it looks: children who learn ten pairs in a fixed sequence can recite them and still not recognize one when it appears in the middle of a sum.
How this one works
One question from this sheet, worked through a step at a time.
6 + ? = 10
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6+4=10
6 and 44 and 6
- Picture ten spaces in a row with 6 of them filled. The question is how many are still empty — not a sum to work out so much as a gap to see.
- Count the empty ones: 4. So 6 and 4 make 10.
- This pair is worth knowing by heart rather than counting each time — there are only five of them for ten, and 4 and 6 is the same pair the other way round. They are what makes 8 + 5 easy later: take 2 from the 5 to finish the ten.