What is the Make a Ten Strategy in Math? Understanding the Process
- Cheryl Fricchione
- May 20
- 6 min read
Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing a new “Beyond the Algorithm” blog series designed to help both parents and educators better understand the mathematical strategies students use in today’s classrooms.
Many adults learned mathematics primarily through memorization and standard algorithms, so some of the strategies students use today can initially feel unfamiliar or unnecessarily complicated.
But these strategies are often rooted in important mathematical ideas about number relationships, place value, and flexible reasoning.
One strategy that frequently raises questions is the Make a Ten strategy.
When many adults see students solving:
8 + 6
by thinking:
8 + 2 + 4 = 14
They sometimes wonder why students are using what appears to be a more complicated process instead of simply memorizing the answer.
But students using the Make a Ten strategy are doing something incredibly important mathematically.
They are reasoning about relationships between numbers.
Rather than counting or relying only on memorization, students are learning to decompose and recombine numbers in flexible ways that make problems easier to solve.
This strategy, commonly called the Make a Ten strategy, plays an important role in developing mathematical fluency and number sense.
Why Students Make Ten First
The Make a Ten strategy is a mental math strategy where students use combinations that make 10 to solve problems more efficiently.
Students decompose numbers to create a group of ten first because ten is a benchmark number that is easy to work with mentally. For example, many students can mentally calculate 10 + 7 more easily than 8 + 9 because once a full ten is made, the remaining amount is easier to keep track of.
Instead of viewing numbers as fixed amounts, students begin to see them as flexible and decomposable.
Rather than counting all or relying only on memorized facts, students are reasoning about how numbers work together.
This flexibility helps students develop stronger number sense and more efficient mental math strategies over time.
This idea connects closely to a larger conversation around mathematical fluency. As I shared in my recent blog on what math fluency really means, fluency is not simply about speed or memorization. It involves accuracy, efficiency, flexibility, and understanding how numbers work together.
Make a Ten Is a Derived Fact Strategy
One important thing to understand is that the Make a Ten strategy is considered a derived fact strategy.
Derived fact strategies help students use facts they already know to figure out facts they may not yet know automatically.
Students often first develop fluency with:
combinations within 10
doubles facts
adding and subtracting 0, 1, and 2
combinations that make 10
These foundational understandings then support more sophisticated reasoning strategies like:
Making 10
Near Doubles
Compensation strategies
Students are deriving unknown facts from known facts.
This is very different from memorizing isolated facts without understanding the mathematics involved.
Instead, students are building flexible reasoning that can later extend to larger numbers and more complex mathematics.
Make a Ten Strategy for Addition
Students often first encounter broader making-10 strategies through addition problems, particularly through a strategy commonly called Make a Ten.
For example:
8 + 5
A student may think:
8 needs 2 more to make 10
break apart the 5 into 2 and 3
10 + 3 = 13
This can be represented as:
8 + 2 + 3 = 13
Students are not learning random steps or tricks.
They are learning to use known number relationships to solve more difficult problems.
As students develop fluency with combinations that make ten, these strategies often become increasingly automatic and efficient.
Eventually, many students no longer need to write every step because the reasoning becomes internalized.
What begins as intentional reasoning often becomes increasingly automatic and efficient over time.
Make a Ten Is About Structure, Not Steps
One misconception about the Make a Ten strategy is that students are supposed to follow a fixed procedure or always decompose numbers in one specific way.
For example, in a problem like:
9 + 8
many students are taught to decompose the 8 into:
1 and 7
so they can make a ten:
9 + 1 + 7 = 17
But mathematically, students could also decompose the 9 instead.
A student might think:
8 needs 2 more to make 10
decompose the 9 into 2 and 7
7 + 10 = 17
This can be represented as:
7 + 2 + 8 = 17
The important idea is not which number gets decomposed.
The important idea is that students are recognizing structure within the numbers and using relationships to create a benchmark number that is easier to work with.
When Make a Ten becomes only about filling in blanks, drawing arrows, or completing number bonds in one specific way, students can miss the deeper mathematical reasoning behind the strategy.
The goal is flexibility and sense-making, not memorizing a procedure.
How the Make a Ten Strategy Grows Over Time
One of the most important things about the Make a Ten strategy is that it does not stay limited to basic facts.
As students develop a stronger understanding of place value, the same reasoning begins to extend to larger numbers.
What starts as “make a ten” eventually becomes:
make a multiple of ten
make a friendly number
make a hundred
For example, a student solving:
28 + 5
may think:
28 needs 2 more to make 30
break apart the 5 into 2 and 3
30 + 3 = 33
This is the same reasoning students used when solving:
8 + 5
They are simply applying the strategy to larger numbers.
Later, students may solve:
197 + 8
by thinking:
197 needs 3 more to make 200
break apart the 8 into 3 and 5
200 + 5 = 205
The numbers become more sophisticated, but the underlying reasoning stays the same.
Students are still decomposing and recomposing numbers to create benchmark numbers that are easier to work with mentally.
This is one reason strategies like Make a Ten are so powerful.
Students are not memorizing isolated procedures for individual problems. They are developing mathematical reasoning that grows with them across grade levels.
This progression is reflected directly in the mathematics standards, where students are expected to use benchmark-number reasoning strategies to solve problems efficiently and flexibly.
Make a Ten in the Math Standards
The Make a Ten strategy is explicitly named in the Grade 1 mathematics standards as one example of how students develop efficient and flexible reasoning strategies for addition and subtraction.
Standard 1.OA.C.6 states that students should:
“Use strategies such as counting on; making ten ... decomposing a number leading to a ten ... using the relationship between addition and subtraction ... and creating equivalent but easier or known sums.”
What’s important is that the standard includes both addition and subtraction examples.
The goal is not simply memorization.
The goal is for students to use number relationships and known facts to solve problems accurately and efficiently.
This is one reason fluency instruction should focus on reasoning strategies and number sense rather than speed alone.
Why the Make a Ten Strategy Matters
The Make a Ten strategy is not simply about helping students get answers quickly.
It helps students:
develop number sense
understand part-whole relationships
reason flexibly about numbers
build efficient mental math strategies
strengthen place value understanding
More importantly, it helps students see mathematics as a system of relationships rather than a collection of isolated facts and procedures.
That idea becomes increasingly important as students move into multi-digit computation, fractions, algebraic thinking, and beyond.
Supporting Understanding of Mathematical Strategies
Understanding strategies like the Make a Ten strategy helps shift conversations about mathematics away from memorization alone and toward reasoning and sense-making.
Sometimes strategies like Make a Ten can initially feel unfamiliar or more complicated to adults who did not personally learn mathematics this way themselves. When parents and educators have opportunities to unpack the reasoning behind these strategies, the mathematics often becomes much clearer.
Rather than viewing Make a Ten as “extra steps,” adults begin recognizing how students are developing flexibility with numbers, building mental math efficiency, strengthening place value understanding, and learning to reason about relationships between numbers.
In my work with schools and districts, I support teachers in strengthening their understanding of mathematical strategies and how those strategies develop across grade levels.
Professional learning focused on mathematical content knowledge helps educators better understand:
how strategies develop from counting to reasoning
why students decompose and recombine numbers
how benchmark numbers support efficient thinking
how strategies connect across grade levels
how student thinking can guide instruction and discussion
When teachers deepen their understanding of the mathematics behind strategies like Make a Ten, they are often better prepared to respond to student thinking, ask stronger questions, and build classrooms centered around reasoning and sense-making.
If your school or district is looking to deepen teachers’ understanding of mathematical strategies, student thinking, and standards-aligned instruction, you can learn more about professional learning opportunities through Coaching That Counts.
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