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.
CAPS links
- Grade RCounts objects to 10 and compares groups of up to 10.
- Grade 1Practises number bonds to 10 and begins place value in teen numbers as tens and ones.
- Mental mathsRapid recall of addition and subtraction facts to 10 in Grade 1.
CAPS does not name ten frames, but it asks for counters, a counting frame and counting in groups of ten, and it wants Grade 1 learners to know their bonds to 10. A ten frame turns those bonds into a picture: the empty boxes are the other part of ten.
Use the Teens sheets alongside flard cards: one full frame is the 10 card, and the extra dots are the ones card on top.
Summarised in our own words from the DBE’s Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for Mathematics, Foundation Phase (2011).
