How Part-Whole Pop works
A part-whole diagram sits at the top of the screen: one circle holding the whole, two lines dropping to a pair of empty circles marked with question marks. Underneath, six balloons bob gently in a grid. The child taps two balloons whose numbers add up to the whole. Both pop, their numbers drop into the two empty parts, and a line underneath reads the fact back - "3 and 7 makes 10".
About a second later a fresh set of six balloons floats in and the parts empty again. The round never ends on its own: there is no timer, no lives and no final score, so a session lasts exactly as long as you want it to and stops when you press Menu.
Tap two balloons that do not make the whole and they simply wobble for about two thirds of a second before the selection clears. Nothing pops, nothing is deducted, and the same balloons are still there to try again. The small counter at the top corner keeps a quiet tally of pairs found against pairs tried, which is useful to a tutor watching and invisible in effect to the child.
Controls
- Touch or mouse: tap one balloon to select it - it grows slightly and takes a dark outline - then tap the second.
- Changing your mind: tapping a selected balloon a second time deselects it, so a child can pick up and put down as many balloons as they like before committing.
- Keyboard: every balloon is a real button, so Tab moves between them and Enter or Space taps the one in focus.
Choosing the whole: 5, 10 or 20
The menu offers Make 5, Make 10 and Make 20, and 10 is selected when the game opens. The choice does more than change the target number: every balloon in the round is drawn from 0 up to the whole, so Make 5 gives a small, countable set of numbers while Make 20 puts teen numbers on screen and pushes the child past what they can subitise.
A useful sequence in a lesson is to run Make 5 until the pairs come instantly, move to Make 10 for the six bonds that matter most, and keep Make 20 for a child who already has bonds to 10 secure and needs to see the same structure at a bigger scale. Because the wholes are separate settings rather than levels, you can drop back down at any point without losing anything.
Why more than one answer is the point
Six balloons are on screen at once and the game guarantees at least one valid pair among them, but it does not stop at one. With a whole of 10, a set holding 1, 9, 3 and 7 has two correct answers, and a child who has only ever practised 5 and 5 has to look past the first thing they recognise.
That is the difference between the part-whole model and a straightforward sum. A sum has one answer; a whole has a family of splits. Children who have only met addition as a question with one right answer often need convincing that 10 really can be 2 and 8 as honestly as it is 5 and 5, and seeing the same whole filled by different pairs round after round is what does the convincing.
The stem sentence
Say the stem sentenceis off by default. Switched on, each correct pair is read aloud as "three and seven makes ten", and a pair that misses is read with the total it actually made followed by "try again" - so a child who taps 4 and 8 when the whole is 10 hears "four and eight makes twelve" rather than a buzzer. Hearing the wrong total named is usually more informative than hearing that the answer was wrong.
Stickers
Every pair popped counts towards the sticker book, all-time rather than per session. The first pair unlocks First Pop, ten unlock Part Spotter, thirty unlock Part-Whole Pro and a hundred unlock Part-Whole Master. The total is stored in the browser, so it survives closing the tab on the same device.
Ten correct pairs on a given whole also award the matching sticker from the shared Number Bonds set - Bonds to 5, Bonds to 10 or Bonds to 20 - which the other maths games contribute to as well. Playing Make 10 here and then Missing Number on bonds to 10 builds towards the same sticker from two different directions.
Questions parents and tutors ask
What is the part-whole model?
The part-whole model is a diagram with one circle for the whole number joined to two circles for the parts it can be split into. It shows that a number is made of smaller numbers, and that the same whole can be split in more than one way.
Which wholes can you practise?
Three: 5, 10 and 20. You choose one on the menu before the round starts, and every balloon in that round carries a number between 0 and the whole you picked.
Is there always more than one right answer?
Usually. Six balloons are on screen at once and at least one valid pair is guaranteed, but with a whole of 10 a set containing 1, 9, 3 and 7 has two correct answers. Finding a different pair each round is the point of the game.
What happens when a child taps the wrong two balloons?
The two balloons wobble for about two thirds of a second and the selection clears. Nothing pops, nothing is lost, and the child picks again. The counter at the top records pairs found out of pairs tried, so a tutor can see the hit rate without the child being told off by the game.
Is Part-Whole Pop free?
Yes. It is free to play in your browser, with no signup, no download and no in-game purchases.
Who Part-Whole Pop is for
This is a Year 1 and Year 2 game, matching the UK National Curriculum expectation that children represent and use number bonds within 20. It is built by a UK SEND tutor with QTS, and the pacing shows it: balloons drift rather than fall, there is no countdown, and a wrong pair produces a wobble instead of a noise.
It earns its place in online sessions because it needs no reading and no typing. A child who cannot yet follow written instructions can be shown one correct pair and then take over, which makes it a straightforward thing to hand to a child over a screen share, on a tablet in the room, or on a classroom whiteboard.