Making Ten Activities for Kids

In this set of activities adaptable for grades K-3, parents and educators will find ideas for teaching about the concept of 10 and different ways of making ten. These activities are designed to complement the BrainPOP Jr. Making Ten topic page, which includes a movie, quizzes, online games, printable activities, and more.

Classroom Activities for Teaching Making Ten

Ten in the Bag
Place different numbers of items, such as counters, beads, dried beans, or crayons, in clear bags. Then challenge pairs or small groups to figure out how many more items are needed in order to have a total of ten in the bag. Students can write number sentences, or create missing addend sentences to solve. They can find the other students in the room who have their missing amount to complete a perfect 10!

Related Facts

Review fact families and related facts with your students. You may want to run through different examples together and write them on the board. Then, give each student a fact to hang around their necks or tape to their clothes. Have students roam the room to find other members of their fact family.

Family and Homeschool Activities for Teaching About Making Ten

Making Ten Memory

From two standard decks of cards, collect the ace through ten as well as the joker, which will represent zero. Then have your child play a game of “Memory”. He or she can match the numbers that can be added together to make ten. Make sure your child writes down the number sentences during or at the end of the game.

Sandwich Triangles

Prepare a sandwich with your child and cut them on a diagonal to create a triangle. Then use the sandwich to create a number triangle. Instead of writing numbers, you can add different numbers of raisins, nuts, or carrots to each corner of the triangle. Create different triangles together to show fact families. Then challenge your child by creating a triangle with a missing number, and having him or her make the missing number. Then, your child can eat the numbers!