Make-A-Ten strategy is an important math strategy to help students make understanding of math facts that might be hard to memorize easier. I find each year that I have a handful of students that struggle with this strategy! This strategy requires students to be able to decompose one of the addends to make a ten from the other. The objective of this lesson is to help my second grade students be able to understand how to regroup numbers to make adding two digit numbers easier. Be sure to download the Free Worksheet Printables here!
1. Roll a Dice & Build the Number 
Not all students will be ready to start adding numbers together to make a ten. Using the ten frames trays and jumbo playing dice makes it super easy to meet the needs of all of our learners, with LITTLE to NO prep! This student is currently working on very basic number sense. To meet his needs, he rolled one die and built that number. He then counted back each shark counter. I prompted him with math talk questions such as: "How many more do you need to make a ten?" "Can you tell me a number smaller than the number you made?" "What is a number larger than the one you made? "What number would come right before 6? What number would come right after 7?" 2. Roll Dice, Make-A-Ten, & Create A Number Sentence 
This activity uses the same procedures as above, except as an extension this student wrote a number sentence using a dry erase sleeve, Expo Marker, and colored paper! The objective of adding in the number sentence is for this student to start recognizing the relationship between the Make-A-Ten strategy and an operation. As you can see from the picture, she chose to build both numbers on different ten frame trays. It works! But, this was a great place to have a math conversation about why she chose this and what was another way she could show adding the two numbers to attempt to create a ten. Having this conversation will hopefully help her see how to regroup in the near future! I prompted her with math talk questions such as: "How many more do you need to make a ten?" "Which number is more? How do you know?" "What if you rolled a 5 & a 6? How would this change your sum?" 3. Add 2 Digit Numbers & Create A Number Sentence 
To meet the needs of my on-level students, we began to add two digit numbers still using the ten frame trays. First, she built both addends on the ten frame trays. I asked her to determine if ten was odd or even and to prove her answer! She did this by grouping two sharks together in one section. Great way to add in a little review! She created a number sentence independently. Although, this was the beginning of our practice, we later started to add numbers such as 9 + 7 to really practice the Make-A-Ten Strategy and discuss regrouping. Each of these activities were done in our guided math groups due to only being 8 days into the school year! My goal is to have these be center choices for each group using the same materials. As an extension, I have provided two Free Worksheets to help differentiate during center time and to hold students accountable for their work! This will be a great way to assess which students can independently complete the strategy and who may need reteaching. Download the Free Worksheet Printables here!
