A Powerful Strategy to Help Kids Learn Addition and Subtraction Facts: Partners to 10
- Math Happiness Project
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
You might have heard your child’s teacher mention it or maybe this phrase is new to you, but “partners to 10" or number pairs that make 10, are a critical part of how to help kids learn addition and subtraction. If you’re thinking, isn't it just memorizing that 6 + 4 = 10 and 7 + 3 = 10, it’s actually bigger than that.
Understanding partners to 10 goes much deeper and is one of the most powerful strategies to help kids learn addition facts. When children learn and understand their partners to 10 it sets them up for success in mathematics for years to come.
What Are Partners to 10?
Partners to 10 are simply pairs of numbers that combine to make 10. These include:
0 and 10
1 and 9
2 and 8
3 and 7
4 and 6
5 and 5
At first glance, these might seem like basic addition facts. But when children truly understand these relationships (not just memorize them!) they're developing flexibility with numbers that becomes a powerful tool for all kinds of mathematical thinking.
Why Do Partners to 10 Matter?
How Partners to 10 Help Kids Learn Addition and Subtraction Facts
Let's start with the obvious: knowing partners to 10 helps children develop understanding of their addition and subtraction facts. When your child recognizes that 3 and 7 make 10, they're building the foundation for efficient mental math. This needs to go beyond memorization though. We want children to understand why these numbers work together, to visualize them, and to see the relationships between them. For example, a child who truly understands might see 3 and 7 on their fingers, picture them as groups of objects, or recognize that if they know 3 + 7 = 10, then 7 + 3 also equals 10. These children can see a problem like 10 - 3 and say to themselves “3 + what equals 10… 7!” This flexibility, being able to think about these numbers in multiple ways, is what we mean by understanding.
Extending to Other Addition and Subtraction Facts
Here's another reason partners to 10 are so valuable: once children really understand them, they become a tool for figuring out other addition and subtraction facts through using the “Make a Ten” Strategy (LINK). For example, if your child knows that 10 + 5 = 15, they can use that knowledge to solve 9 + 5. They might think, "Well, 9 is one less than 10, so 9 + 5 must be one less than 15—that's 14!" Or when solving 8 + 5, a child might notice we need to add 2 to 8 to get 10, so they would break the 5 into 2 and 3. Once they add the 2 to the 8 to make 10, they add the remaining 3 to get 13.
The Make a Ten strategy is incredibly powerful and efficient—and it's built entirely on a solid understanding of partners to 10. We dive much deeper into this strategy in our video on making a ten, but the key point here is that partners to 10 aren't just useful for problems that equal 10—they're a gateway to solving lots of other addition and subtraction problems with confidence and understanding.
Supporting Future Addition and Subtraction Strategies
Partners to 10 also show their power when children start working with larger numbers.
Think about a problem like 37 + 8. A child who understands partners to 10 can see that 8 is 3 away from 10, so they might think: "I'll take 3 from the 8 to make 37 into 40, and then I have 5 left over, so 40 + 5 = 45."
The same applies to subtraction. When solving 43 - 8, a child might think about taking away 3 to get to 40 a multiple of ten(which is generally more accessible for kids), then taking away 5 more. Again, this relies on flexibly breaking apart numbers and understanding their relationship to 10.
Laying Groundwork for Multiplication and Division
Partners to 10 aren’t only powerful for addition and subtraction work, they even support later work with multiplication and division! When children get comfortable with the idea that numbers can be broken apart into friendlier parts, they're developing an understanding of the distributive property—even if they never hear that fancy term in elementary school.
This flexibility with breaking apart numbers becomes foundational when children eventually learn strategies for multiplying and dividing larger numbers. The mindset of "I can break this number apart in a way that makes my work easier" starts with partners to 10.
How to Build Understanding of Partners to 10 at Home
The good news? You don't need fancy materials, more screen time on an app, or dedicated "math time" to help your child develop strong understanding of partners to 10. Here are some simple, practical ways to build this understanding into your everyday routines:
Notice and Name Partners to 10 in Daily Life
Keep your eyes open for groups of 10 throughout your day, and point them out to your child.
"Look, we have 10 chicken nuggets. You ate 3—how many are left?"
"We need 10 items for our grocery list. We have 4 so far. How many more do we need?"
The key is making these observations feel natural and curious rather than like a quiz. You're helping your child see that 10 is everywhere and that thinking about how to make 10 is useful.
Use Your Fingers
Fingers are a powerful mathematical tool and we conveniently have 10 of them! Hold up 10 fingers and ask your child to show you different ways to break them into two groups. "Can you hold up 6 fingers? How many are down? So 6 and what make 10?"
You can also play with this by hiding some fingers behind your back. "I'm holding up 10 fingers, but you can only see 3 of them. How many are hiding?"
Play with Household Items
Grab 10 of anything—crackers, toys, blocks, grapes. Give your child some of them and keep the rest yourself. "You have 4 crackers and I have the rest. How many do I have?" Then switch it up and try different combinations.
The physical manipulation of objects helps children build a mental image of these number relationships. Over time, they'll start to visualize these partners even without the objects in front of them.
Count Up and Back
When you're walking, driving, or have a spare moment, play with counting to 10 and back. Then try starting at different numbers: "Let's start at 4. How many more do we need to get to 10?" Count together: "5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10—that's 6 more!"
This builds the connection between counting and combining numbers, helping children see partners to 10 as part of a number sequence rather than isolated facts.
Play Games
If your child enjoys more structured activities, we have a couple of games that work beautifully for practicing partners to 10:
Hide the Hearts: Start with 10 objects (hearts, blocks, crackers—anything works!). One person hides some of them in a cup or behind their back, shows the remaining objects, and the other person figures out how many are hiding. This game builds that critical part-part-whole understanding: if I can see 6, and there are 10 total, then 4 must be hidden.
(Link)Partners to 10 Magna Tiles: Using magna tiles and a dry erase marker, label each tile with one half of a partner pair (like one tile gets a 3, another gets a 7). Depending on where your child is, you can write just numerals or include dots for support. Children match the tiles to make 10.
Make It About Curiosity, Not Speed
Remember, the goal isn't for your child to instantly recall these facts at lightning speed. The goal is understanding and flexibility. Some children will naturally develop efficient recall, and others will take more time and that's completely okay.
What matters is that your child can think about these numbers in multiple ways, visualize them, and use them as tools for solving problems. Speed without understanding doesn't help anyone in the long run.
Where to Start
If this feels like a lot, take a deep breath. You don't need to do all of these activities, and you certainly don't need to do them every day. Start with what feels natural for your family.
Maybe this week, you simply notice when you encounter groups of 10 and wonder aloud with your child about how they're made up. Maybe you play with your fingers while waiting for dinner to cook. Small, consistent experiences add up—and they're building something much bigger than just memorizing a few math facts.
Understanding partners to 10 is about helping your child see numbers as flexible, friendly tools rather than rigid rules to memorize.
Keep Learning with Us!
The Compensation strategy is just one of many ways to help kids build a strong foundation in addition. Be sure to explore the other posts and videos in our Understanding Addition of Simple Numbers series for more tips and strategies!
Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to support our mission of building confident, happy math learners. Together, we can make math a joyful experience for the next generation!
Make Sure to Stay Connected!
We have lots more resources so that you can support your child in becoming excited, confident, capable doers of mathematics. Follow us on Instagram and YouTube to stay up to date! @MathHappinessProject
Comments