Bridging Ten Bridge

About Bridging Ten Bridge

Bridging Ten Bridge teaches the strategy that turns addition from something counted into something worked out. Faced with 8 plus 5, a child who counts on will tick off five numbers one at a time and hope not to lose their place. A child who bridges through ten splits the 5 into 2 and 3, uses the 2 to reach the friendly number ten, and adds the remaining 3 — arriving at 13 in two easy steps instead of five fragile ones. Each row of the puzzle grid is one bridge, and the child fills the empty cells: how many more the first number needs to reach ten, what is left of the second number, and the total. Every empty cell carries a clue, and a further hint sits behind a button for anyone who wants it, so a child who is stuck is never simply stuck. At the first two levels the leftover part is given, which means the child only has to find the bridge and the answer; from the third level the whole split is theirs to work out. This matters more than it looks: bridging through ten is named explicitly in the English and Australian curricula, and it is the strategy that later scales to bridging through a hundred and through a thousand without any new idea being needed. Grids can be worked entirely by tap or by keyboard, every cell announces its state to screen readers, and a wrong number simply flashes and can be replaced. The game is free, needs no sign-up, shows no advertising to children, and keeps progress on the device.