Activities Using Ten and Twenty Frames

The Basic Tools (and how to use them)

• Ten Frame Cut Out Cards: Using this tool, students can name either an addition or subtraction sentence based on the Frame Cards they draw.
  
  For example, if four dots are filled on the frame card drawn, the student will need to name the addition sentence 4 + 6, because six more dots are needed to make ten dots altogether. For subtraction, there are spaces altogether on the frame; if you take away the four spaces with dots, there are six spaces left. The subtraction sentence would be 10 – 4 = 6.
  
  Students can use these like flash cards individually or with a partner in building fluency of combinations of ten.

• Ten Frame: Have students place so many counters on the Ten Frame and ask how many more are needed to make 10. Have them verbalize as an addition sentence.

• Twenty Frame: This frame can be used for addition and subtraction sentences involving numbers larger than 10.

Activities

• Build It/Change It:
  
  For this activity, you need a set of Primary Number Cards (without Wild Cards), a Ten Frame or a Twenty Frame and a partner.
  
  Face the set of cards down in one pile. Partner One turns over a card and places that many counters (pennies or beans) on the Ten Frame. Partner Two turns over a card and then has to change the number of counters to match the number on his/her card. Partner Two will have to decide if he/she has to add or subtract counters from the Ten Frame to make his/her number on the card. Once he/she has decided, he/she names the number sentence out loud.
  
  For example, Partner One draws a card with the number 4 and puts four counters on the Ten Frame. Partner Two then turns over a 7. He/she then has to add three more counters to the Ten Frame. The addition sentence to say out loud is 4 + 3 = 7.
  
  Clear the frame and begin again with a new card. Partner Two draws first this time.

• Make 10 Facts:
  (Ex: 7 + 9 is thought of as 9 + 1 to make a 10 and then add 6 for the sum of 16)
  
  Be sure students have learned to think of the numbers 11 – 18 as “10 and some more.” These facts consist of one of the addends being either 8 or 9 to build 10 and then add on the rest.

• Building Up Through 10:
  
  This includes where the part being subtracted is always 8 or 9, such as 13 – 9 or 15 – 8. The use of a Ten Frame with 8 or 9 dots filled and then students thinking how many more to get to the subtrahend.
  
  Example: To solve 13 -9 using addition, think “I have nine counters in my frame. I need one more to fill the Ten Frame plus three more to get 13; 1 and 3 is 4. My difference is 4, thinking of it as addition.”

• Back Down Through 10:
  
  In this activity, the students are working backwards with 10 as a “bridge.”
  
  Example: To solve 14 – 6, take off four counters from 14 to get to 10, then take two more off to get to the difference of 8. Use two Ten Frames, where students place counters on both frames representing the two subtraction values and then move counters from the larger value to the smaller making 10 first and taking away what is still leftover.