How Tens Train works
An engine pulls a short train across the screen. The first carriage shows a number - 30, say - then a plus sign, then an empty carriage with dashed sides and a question mark, then an equals sign, then the total. Four numbered carriages wait underneath. The child picks the one that finishes the train.
Pick correctly and the number slides into the empty carriage, the choice turns green, and about a second and a half later the engine pulls a new question. Every number involved is a multiple of ten, from the carriage you are given to the four you choose between, which is what keeps the underlying pattern in view rather than letting it disappear into arithmetic.
A wrong carriage behaves differently from most quiz games. It outlines in orange and bounces, and after about a second the same question comes back rather than being replaced. The child answers that particular bond properly before moving on, which matters when the whole point is committing a small set of facts to memory. A counter in the corner tracks carriages hooked up against carriages tried.
Controls
- Touch or mouse: tap one of the four carriages under the train. There is nothing to drag and nothing to aim at.
- Keyboard: the four choices are ordinary buttons, so Tab moves along them and Enter or Space picks one.
- Between questions: the choices are disabled while a correct answer is being shown, so a fast double tap cannot skip past the answer or spend itself on the next question.
From bonds to 10 to bonds to 100
This game exists for one specific Year 2 objective: deriving related facts to 100 from the bonds to 10 a child already knows. If 3 and 7 make 10, then 3 tens and 7 tens make 10 tens - which is 100. That leap, from a known fact to a related one, is the whole skill, and it is far more valuable than memorising the tens pairs separately.
Keeping every carriage a multiple of ten is what makes the transfer visible. A child who is still counting will try to count in tens and find it slow; a child who has bonds to 10 secure will recognise 40 and 60 the way they recognise 4 and 6. If the second thing is not happening yet, the fix is usually not more practice here but a spell on Rainbow to 10 first.
The tens hint
Show the tens hintis on by default. It prints a line under the train restating the question in tens - "3 tens and ? tens makes 10 tens" - so the bond to 10 hiding inside the bond to 100 is stated in words while the child is looking at the numbers. Turning it off leaves the same question with nothing but the numerals, which is the natural next step once a child stops reading the hint.
Say the stem sentenceis off by default and speaks the plain numbers rather than the tens phrasing - a correct answer is read back as "thirty and seventy makes one hundred". A wrong pick is spoken with the total it actually made and then the total that was needed, for example "thirty and twenty makes fifty, we need one hundred", which names the gap instead of just marking the answer wrong.
Picking a total: 30, 50 or 100
The menu offers Make 30, Make 50 and Make 100, with 100 selected when the game opens. Make 30 is a deliberately small world - only 0, 10, 20 and 30 exist, so every possible carriage is on screen and the game becomes a gentle introduction to the idea of counting in tens towards a target. Make 50 widens it, and Make 100 is the Year 2 objective proper.
Whichever total you choose, the four carriages offered are the ones nearest the right answer rather than random numbers. That rules out the usual shortcut of spotting the odd one out: on Make 100 with 30 given, the choices sit close around 70, so the child has to know the bond rather than eliminate their way to it.
Stickers
Carriages hooked up count towards the sticker book for good, not just for the current session. The first one unlocks All Aboard, ten unlock Conductor, thirty unlock Engineer and a hundred unlock Train Master. The tally lives in the browser and survives closing the tab on the same device.
Ten correct answers on one total also award the matching sticker from the shared Number Bonds set: Bonds to 30 (tens), Bonds to 50 (tens) or Bonds to 100 (tens). Those three sit alongside the bonds-to-5, 10 and 20 stickers the other maths games award, so the sticker book ends up showing which bond families a child has actually secured.
Questions parents and tutors ask
What are number bonds to 100?
Number bonds to 100 are pairs that add up to 100. In Year 2 children learn the multiples-of-ten pairs first - 10 and 90, 20 and 80, 30 and 70, 40 and 60, and 50 with itself - because each one is a bond to 10 with a zero on the end.
Which totals can you practise?
Three: 30, 50 and 100. You pick one on the menu, and 100 is selected when the game opens. Every carriage in the round is a multiple of ten between 0 and the total you chose.
What is the tens hint?
A line under the train that restates the question in tens - for example, 3 tens and ? tens makes 10 tens. It is switched on by default and can be turned off on the menu once a child no longer needs the link spelled out.
What happens after a wrong answer?
The carriage the child picked outlines in orange and bounces, and after about a second the same question comes back. Nothing is lost and the round does not move on, so the child answers that question properly before seeing a new one.
Is Tens Train free?
Yes. It is free to play in your browser, with no signup, no download and no in-game purchases.
Who Tens Train is for
Tens Train suits Year 2 children working on derived facts, and Year 3 or 4 children who have arrived in lower Key Stage 2 without secure bonds to 100 and are being slowed down by it in column addition and change-from-a-pound problems. It was built by a UK SEND tutor with QTS, and the pacing is set for children who need a beat between questions rather than a leaderboard.
There is nothing to read beyond the numerals and the optional hint, which makes it usable with children whose reading is well behind their maths. It runs in any modern browser on a tablet, laptop or classroom whiteboard, and works the same over a screen share as it does with the device in the child's hands.