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 practice
- 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.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC KA sense of 5 and 10, ways to make 5, and 5 and 10 as benchmarks.
- BC Grade 1Ways to make 10, and numbers to 20 as “10 and some more”.
- BC Grade 2Ten frames used with an open number line and a hundred chart for adding and subtracting.
- ON Grade 1Working with numbers up to 50.
BC’s curriculum names ten frames directly, along with subitizing: recognizing a small amount without counting. Flash a filled frame for a second or two and ask how many. The Make 10 sheets match BC’s Grade 1 ways to make 10, and the Teens sheets match its idea of 10 and some more.
Ontario’s Grade 1 works with numbers up to 50, so the double frames are a stepping stone: once 14 is a full ten and four more, 34 can be three full tens and four more.
Summarized in our own words from the BC Mathematics curriculum (K–2) and Ontario’s overview of The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics (2020).
