Addition Maze: Step Only on Sums That Make 10

A dusty savanna stretches across the page. A giraffe starts at the green circle, next to a round badge showing 10, and a baobab tree waits at the far end. The tracks pass flat stones, and each stone carries an addition such as 6 + 4 or 7 + 4. A zebra, an elephant, a rhinoceros, an ostrich, a meerkat and a gazelle stand on the plains around the tracks.

The giraffe may only step on stones whose sum is 10. Every stone on the right road is a pair that makes 10, and the wrong stones are close misses that make 9 or 11, often sharing a number with a right pair, so a child really has to add rather than spot a familiar number. Pairs that make 10 are the backbone of first grade addition and subtraction, because so much later mental math leans on them. A child can say each sum aloud before choosing, or count on fingers at first.

The page prints as a PDF, works as a screen version where the child drags the giraffe over the stones and presses Check, and comes with an answer key showing the road of tens in colour. In the same family, the gingerbread maze practises subtraction within 20, and the running-total maze keeps a total across several signs. These are picture mazes with a story; square-grid mazes, dot-to-dot and word sorting have their own pages.