Number bonds worksheets: pairs that make ten

Number bonds worksheets to 10: 60 part-part-whole diagrams, with the empty circle moving so each fact is asked three ways. 11 pages, free PDF.

A number bond is three circles: one whole at the top, two parts below, joined by lines. Leave any one of them empty and you have a different question — and that is the whole point of the diagram. 6 and 4 make 10, 10 take away 6 is 4, 10 take away 4 is 6. One picture, three facts.

Number bond worksheet with six part-part-whole diagrams — Sheet 1 – six bonds, with a different circle left empty each time.

What is on each page

Six bonds in two columns. Which circle is left empty rotates as you work down the page, so a child cannot settle into answering the same kind of question six times.

The first six sheets are all bonds to ten. The last four use totals from five to ten, because a child who has only ever seen bonds to ten will sometimes think the diagram itself means ten.

Why the bonds to ten are worth memorising

They are the smallest set of facts with the biggest return in early maths. A child who knows instantly that 7 and 3 make 10 can do 7 + 5 by splitting the 5 into 3 and 2 — make ten, then add the rest. That method, taught everywhere as “bridging through ten”, does not work at all until the bonds are automatic.

There are only five pairs to learn: 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6, 5 and 5. That is a small enough list to say at bedtime.

Number bond worksheet with totals other than ten — Sheet 8 – the later sheets use totals from 5 to 10.

Do it with objects first

Ten counters, two hands. Put some in each hand behind your back, show one hand, ask how many are hidden. It is the same question the diagram asks and it is much more interesting. The worksheet is for recording what has already been understood.

Part-part-whole, and why the layout matters

The whole is drawn above and the parts below, joined by lines, because that arrangement carries over into bar models and then into algebra. A child who has seen it this way for two years reads a bar model without being taught one.

What comes next

Addition Within 10 and Subtraction Within 10 both become easy once the bonds are known — which is the fastest way to show a child that the memorising was worth it.

Printing this one correctly

In your printer dialog set Scale to 100% or Actual size, not Fit to page. Fit to page shrinks the tracing letters and they stop matching the size a child's hand is learning.

Plain paper is fine for crayons and pencils. If your child uses felt pens, 100 gsm paper stops the ink bleeding to the next sheet.