How the Take From 10 Strategy Simplifies Subtraction

As part of the Beyond the Algorithm series, we’ve been exploring the mathematical reasoning behind many of the strategies students use in today’s classrooms. In earlier posts, we looked at strategies like Make a Ten and Down Under 10, where students use benchmark numbers and number relationships to make addition and subtraction problems easier to reason about mentally. This week, we’re looking at another related subtraction strategy often called the Take From 10 strategy.

In earlier posts, we looked at strategies like Make a Ten and Down Under 10, where students use benchmark numbers and number relationships to make addition and subtraction problems easier to reason about mentally.

While the Take From 10 strategy may not be discussed as frequently as some other subtraction strategies, that does not make it any less mathematically valuable.

In fact, it can be especially effective for students who already know combinations that make 10 but are still developing flexibility with larger number combinations.

What Is the Take From 10 Strategy?

The Take From 10 strategy helps students simplify subtraction problems by first thinking about subtracting from 10 and then adjusting using the remaining amount from the teen number.

For example:

14 − 8

A student may think:

• 10 − 8 = 2

• 14 is 4 more than 10, so the difference should be 4 more than 2

• 2 + 4 = 6

Students using the Take From 10 strategy may first think about the difference between 10 and 8, then adjust because 14 is 4 more than 10.

This can be represented as:

10 − 8 = 2 2 + 4 = 6

Rather than treating 14 as an entirely new quantity, students use a benchmark number they know well and then adjust.

This type of reasoning moves students beyond thinking of subtraction as simply “taking away” and toward reasoning about the relationship and distance between numbers.

Why Students Use Take From 10

Ten is a benchmark number that many students can work with more efficiently and flexibly.

For some students, it is easier to think about:

10 − 8

than:

14 − 8

because combinations involving 10 are often developed earlier and become more familiar through repeated experiences with ten frames, games, and decomposition activities.

This strategy can be especially supportive for students who are still developing fluency with teen-number subtraction but already feel confident working with combinations to 10.

Even though adults do not tend to use the Take From 10 strategy as frequently themselves, one reason some students find it especially approachable is that it relies heavily on combinations that make 10:

• 1 + 9

• 2 + 8

• 3 + 7

• 4 + 6

• 5 + 5

Take From 10 relies heavily on students recognizing combinations that make 10.

These combinations are often easier for young learners to visualize and reason about because tools like ten frames help students physically and visually see how numbers fit together to make a full group of 10.

Students also need to understand that teen numbers are composed of one group of ten and some additional ones.

For example:

• 13 is 10 and 3 more

• 15 is 10 and 5 more

Understanding teen numbers as “10 and some more” helps students reason flexibly with strategies like Take From 10.

Again, these quantities are often easier for students to visualize because ten frames help organize numbers into benchmark groups of 10 and leftover ones.

I often use and recommend these Dry Erase Ten Frames from EAI Education during early number sense and fluency work because they provide flexibility to use either dry erase markers or physical objects while helping students begin seeing 10 as a complete group without losing sight of the individual quantities that make up that 10.

Other subtraction strategies, such as Down Under 10, often require students to flexibly break apart additional numbers beyond combinations to 10.

For example, students may need to recognize:

• 8 can be decomposed into 1 + 7

• 2 + 6

• 3 + 5

• or 4 + 4

• 
  

Because different strategies rely on different types of number relationships, it is important for students to have opportunities to build flexibility with numbers in many different ways.

Remember: the goal is not for students to collect strategy names, but to build flexible ways of thinking about numbers and operations.

Through these experiences, students begin recognizing that numbers can be decomposed and recomposed flexibly to make subtraction problems easier to reason about mentally.

Building Fluency Through Games and Number Sense

Games can play an important role in helping students develop flexibility and fluency with combinations to 10.

One simple example is this Tens Go Fish game inspired by work from Webster Groves School District, where students repeatedly reason about combinations that make 10 through gameplay.

Games that focus on combinations that make 10 can help students build important foundations for later fluency strategies.

In my K–2 and 3–5 fluency workshops, games and routines are important for helping students develop efficient, flexible, and meaningful number reasoning rather than relying solely on memorization.

We are currently scheduling fall fluency workshops. If you are interested in learning more, you can register your interest here.