A ten frame (Figure 1) is a grid of ten squares in two rows of five. Each square can have a dot in it, or it can be empty. One dot and nine empty squares represent the number 1; two dots and eight empty squares represent the number 2; and so on. Two ten frames (Figure 2) can be used together to represent 11-20.
Many of these games use ten frames on the game board, on dice, or on cards. The ten frames encourage learners to think about numbers in ways that help them use the numbers effectively in a base ten system.
You can help learners by modeling various ways to think about the information that is available in the ten frame representations:
- Identifying the number 6: “The top row is full and then there’s one more, so it must be six.”
- Identifying the number 6: “There are four empty squares, so it must be six.”
- Identifying the number 18: “You know this part is ten. And you know this part is eight because it has two empty squares. So, there’s ten and eight – that’s the same as eighteen.”
- Identifying the number 18: “You know this is eight, because the top five are all there and there’s three in the bottom. So eight, plus the ten on top, means the whole number is eighteen.”
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August 17, 2020