Ten frame activities use a simple grid of two rows of five boxes to help kids see numbers as parts of 10. You don't need a printer: draw a frame, tape one onto the table or trim an egg carton to ten cups. Then play quick games like flash it, build it, fill it and make 10.
A ten frame is a rectangle split into ten boxes, in two rows of five. Kids put one counter, such as a bean, coin or piece of cereal, in each box to show a number. Because each row holds five, a child can see that 7 is "a full row of five and two more," and that 7 needs 3 more to fill the frame and make 10.
A common habit is to fill the top row first, from left to right, and then the bottom row. Using the same order every time makes amounts easy to recognize at a glance.
The Math Learning Center, which makes a virtual Number Frames tool for classrooms, explains that frames help children see quantities as groups and in relation to benchmark quantities. That helps young learners move away from counting one by one and toward quicker ways of counting and calculating. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) puts it simply on its Ten Frame interactive page: thinking about numbers using frames of 10 can be a helpful way to learn basic number facts.
Ten frames also match what kindergarten standards ask for. The Common Core expects kindergartners to break numbers up to 10 into pairs in more than one way, to find the number that makes 10 with any number from 1 to 9, and to see the numbers 11 to 19 as ten ones and some more ones.
Paper: draw a rectangle, split it into two rows of five boxes, and make each box big enough for a coin.
Egg carton: cut two cups off a 12-cup carton.
Tape: mark a grid on the table or floor with painter's tape. A big floor frame works for stuffed animals, or for kids standing in the boxes.
Chalk: draw one on the sidewalk and use pebbles or leaves as counters.
For counters, use anything small that is safe for your child's age, such as dried beans, buttons, coins, blocks or cereal. Two colors come in handy for some games.
Flash it. Fill some boxes, show the frame for two seconds, then cover it. Ask, "How many?" and "How did you see it?" Start with 1 to 5, then go up to 10.
How many empty? Show a frame and ask how many boxes are empty instead of full. This flips the question and builds the "how many more to 10?" habit.
Build it. Call out a number, or roll a die, and have your child build it on the frame. Then switch roles and let your child call a number for you.
Fill it to 10. Put some counters on the frame. Your child says how many more are needed to fill it, then adds them to check. Say the fact out loud: "6 and 4 make 10."
Two-color stories. Build 7 with five red counters and two yellow ones and say, "5 and 2 make 7." Then rearrange to 4 red and 3 yellow. How many different ways can you make 7?
Shake and spill. Shake ten coins in a cup and spill them. Put the heads on the frame first, then the tails, and say the pair: "6 heads and 4 tails make 10."
Ten frame race. Each player has a frame. Take turns rolling a die and adding that many counters. You need the exact number to fill your frame, so near the end players have to think about how many boxes are left.
Ten frame war. Each player flips a playing card (ace to 10) and builds that number on their frame. The bigger number wins both cards. Ask how much bigger by comparing the frames row by row.
Double frame teens. Put two frames side by side. Fill the first one and put 4 counters on the second to show 14 as "ten and four." Try every number from 11 to 19.
Snack frame. Use crackers or grapes as counters. Build a number, eat one, and say the new number. Build back up to 10 to finish.
Keep it short. A few rounds is plenty. Stop while your child still wants more.
Ask "How did you see it?" Explaining is how kids start to notice the five and the ten inside a number.
Fill in the same order. Consistent patterns make quick looks easier.
Move from objects to pictures. Once real counters feel easy, try dots drawn on a paper frame, then just talk it through.
Connect it to make 10. Our guide to number bonds to 10 has more games for the same pairs, and number bonds to 20 builds on the double frame idea.
A ten frame is a 2-by-5 grid used to show numbers up to 10. Counters go in the boxes, so kids can see a number in relation to 5 and 10 without counting each one.
They are mostly used with young children in the early grades. The skills they support, like making 10 and seeing 11 to 19 as ten and some ones, appear in the Common Core kindergarten standards.
Filling the same way each time makes patterns easy to read. A full top row always means 5, so any number from 6 to 10 quickly reads as "five and some more."
Use two frames side by side, often called a double ten frame. Fill the first frame and put the extra counters in the second, so 13 looks like "ten and three."
Number Beasts: Bond Lab is a free iPhone and iPad puzzle game built on the same make-10 idea a ten frame shows: you launch a number at a beast, and the beast pops when the total is exactly 10. If you overshoot, the beast still pops and the leftover number keeps flying to the next beast, across 45 handcrafted stages plus a Daily Lab puzzle each day. It has no ads, no accounts and no in-app purchases, and it works offline.
Get Number Beasts free on the App Store
Ten Frame interactive (NCTM Illuminations, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)
Common Core State Standards: Kindergarten, Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Common Core State Standards: Kindergarten, Number and Operations in Base Ten