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Home » Kindergarten Teaching Ideas

How to Create Ten Frame Manipulatives

By Leslie Simpson · About 2 minutes to read this article.

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Speaking of planning, I am sketching out the next nine weeks of math instruction. We are beginning work over the next nine weeks of really identifying, writing and composing/decomposing numbers 11-19 using tens and ones.

As I was at the Dollar Tree today, I grabbed three sets of (affiliate) foam sheets. I was thinking of a way to make simple groups of tens and ones (simple on myself) and these fit the bill.

I will draw a complete group of ten using a sharpie and bingo daubers, and then cut singles using a paper cutter.

creating ten frame manipulatives - KindergartenWorks

Having different colors will allow me to have sets that are easy to use in small groups and for easy clean up.

I wanted to make some ten frames that felt manipulative, and this will work nicely for my small group work!

I've also made a set for myself with just the blank ten frame (no dots inside the frame).

Any chance to help kinders "see" numbers in an organized fashion greatly helps them to improve their math skills, just like we teach number formation on a dice.

Now, you can have your kinders seeing numbers to 10 - and it will help with many Common Core Standards like K.OA.2 (knowing how many more to make 10). Bring on the algebra in Kindergarten!

How else can you make manipulative-feeling ten frames? I tried laminated paper, but it just wasn't substantial enough and was too hard for kinder fingers to grab... Share your ideas!

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

More on Ten Frames

  • Teach How to Draw a Ten Frame
  • Teen Numbers in Kindergarten
  • Why Does 10+6=16?
  • Composing & Decomposing: a Guided Math Lesson Plan Flow
  • Teen Frame Decomposing Game
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About Leslie Simpson

Leslie is the teacher behind KindergartenWorks. She believes in teaching kinders how to be pretty incredible along with teaching them to read, write and think for themselves. She enjoys drinking hot tea, making mud pies with her three kids and sharing what she's learned with teachers.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kathy Stahl says

    January 21, 2013 at 5:23 pm

    I use egg carton cut down to 10s. Works great!

    Reply
    • Leslie @KindergartenWorks says

      January 21, 2013 at 8:03 pm

      Great tip Kathy! Thanks
      - Leslie

      Reply
  2. KinderDawne says

    August 16, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    I am going to use ice cube trays this year. Many of them at the dollar stores have 10 cube places in them.

    Reply
  3. Lenore says

    July 21, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    I like your idea of using foam for the ten frame. I'm thinking I would like to adapt it by making the counters in a different color so it would be easier for the students to see how many they have/need.

    Reply

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