Ten Frames are an important tool to help your students learn and understand numbers! Keep reading for some easy ten frame activities that you can use in your classroom right now.
Why use ten Frames? Ten frames help students “see” or visualize numbers. This leads to a deeper understanding and helps develop number sense. Ten is the building block of our number system and ten frames help our students develop a strong sense of ten in relation to other numbers.
Grab the Manipulatives!
As with all math skills it makes the most sense to start with hands on activities using manipulatives. One easy way to make a ten frame is to use an egg carton. Cut off the end to make 2 rows of ten. Students can use cubes, pompoms, counting bears or any other small manipulatives to make their numbers. Collect a class set and teach guided lessons with students building numbers as a group.
Add some TEN FRAME MATS to your math centers. Use counters, mini erasers or a dry erase marker to show the numbers. I drew happy faces on bingo chips for a fun manipulative!
Fast Flash Cards
We want our students to be able to recognize the number arrangements on ten frames at a glance … otherwise known as subitizing.
Flash TEN FRAME CARDS to your class or group and see how fast they can tell how many dots are shown. This only takes a few minutes and is lots of fun! I let my students just shout out the number as quick as they could and we tried to go faster each day. TIP: Extend by having students saying number of spaces instead of number of dots or one number more/less than the number of dots.
Calendar Ten Frames
Add ten frames to you calendar routine to help count your days in school. This gives your students daily practice with ten frames, counting by ten, place value and counting on. CALENDAR TEN FRAMES are included in my classroom calendar set.
Play Time!
What better way for your students to learn than by playing a game! Games are fun way for your students to practice and review ten frames all year long.
Find these Games…
•TEN FRAME FUN Spin to the Top and Dice Games
•TEN FRAME MATCH FREEBIE Memory Game
I hope you found some ten frame activities that you can use in your classroom!
