Max Rescues the Circus Animals: Adding Tens Race!

About this Grade 2 Adding Multiples Of 10 Drill

Adding multiples of 10 is a cornerstone skill that bridges early counting and formal arithmetic for seven- and eight-year-olds. When students master 23 + 10 or 40 + 30, they're learning that the ones place stays the same while tens can be combined—a concept that makes two-digit addition manageable rather than overwhelming. This mental flexibility helps children recognize patterns in our base-10 number system, which is essential for understanding place value deeply. By practicing these combinations, students develop number sense that transfers directly to real-world situations like counting coins, measuring distances, or keeping score at a school circus event. Strong skills here also reduce anxiety around addition and build the confidence needed to tackle regrouping (carrying) in later grades. Children who understand multiples of 10 intuitively can solve problems faster and with fewer counting-on strategies, freeing up mental energy for more complex math tasks.

What your student will practice

• Recognize that adding tens doesn't change the ones digit
• Fluently add two multiples of 10 up to 100
• Apply tens addition to solve two-digit addition problems
• Explain addition of multiples of 10 using place value language

Common mistakes to watch for

The most common error is students treating 23 + 10 like 23 + 1, resulting in 24 instead of 33. They may also recount from one every time rather than recognizing the shortcut that 10 + 10 = 20, or confuse place value by adding tens and ones together incorrectly (like saying 20 + 5 equals 25 but then writing 2 and 5 separately). Watch for students who count on their fingers for every problem—this signals they haven't yet internalized that multiples of 10 combine in predictable ways.