Why ten frames work
A ten frame shows a number as a picture children can read without counting one by one. Five fills a row, ten fills the frame, and the empty boxes show how many more make ten. That picture is the base of adding within 10 and understanding teen numbers.
Three ways to practise
- How many? Count the dots and write the number.
- Make 10. Count the empty boxes to find what makes ten.
- Teens. One full frame and some more: ten and some ones.
In the Australian Curriculum
- FoundationRecognising how many are in a collection up to 5 without counting, which the curriculum calls subitising (AC9MFN02).
- FoundationPartitioning and combining collections up to 10 using part-part-whole relationships (AC9MFN04).
- Year 1Adding and subtracting within 20 using part-part-whole knowledge to 10 (AC9M1N04).
The Foundation curriculum names subitising for amounts up to 5. A ten frame stretches that to 10, because children see “five and two more” instead of seven separate dots. Flash a frame for two seconds, ask how many, then ask how they knew.
The Teens sheets match the Foundation range of numbers to at least 20, and the Make 10 sheets prepare for Year 1, where knowing the parts of 10 is the key to adding within 20.
Summarised in our own words from the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, Version 9.0 (ACARA).
