Presentation

  1. 1

    Quantity: lay a golden ten bar and place the one bead beside it: 'Ten and one is eleven.' Continue: 'Ten and two is twelve', 'Ten and three is thirteen.'

  2. 2

    Three-period lesson on the quantities 11, 12, 13.

  3. 3

    Symbol: show the Teen Board. Slide tablet 1 over the zero of the first 10: 'This is eleven.' Continue with 12 and 13.

  4. 4

    Three-period lesson on the numerals 11, 12, 13.

  5. 5

    In later lessons, repeat quantity and symbol for 14–16 and 17–19.

  6. 6

    Association: the child builds each quantity with a ten bar and a colored bar to the left of the board, then slides in the matching tablet.

  7. 7

    The child reads down the board from 11 to 19 and puts the material away.

Extensions, easiest to hardest

  1. Guide names a teen number; the child builds it with beads and tablet.
  2. Tablets mixed; the child fills the board in order.
  3. Child writes numerals 11–19 on paper.

Control of error

The colored bar beside each ten bar must match the tablet numeral by count and by its Bead Stair color; the tablets fill the board in order 1–9.

Ready to move on when the child…

  • Names and builds any number 11–19
  • Reads and writes numerals 11–19
  • Explains that fourteen is ten and four

Guide note

Eleven and twelve sound nothing like 'ten and one'; give them extra practice. Watch for reversed writing (51 for fifteen) and point to the ten bar: the ten comes first.

Try “pink tower”, “tummy”, “diaper”, “grace and courtesy”, or “October”.