Presentation

  1. 1

    Quantity: lay out golden ten bars one at a time: 'one ten, ten; two tens, twenty; three tens, thirty…' to ninety.

  2. 2

    Three-period lesson on twenty, thirty, forty, then the rest.

  3. 3

    Symbol: read the Ten Boards from 10 to 90. The child places the matching number of ten bars beside each numeral.

  4. 4

    Counting through: place one ten bar beside 10. Add one unit bead and slide tablet 1 over the zero: 'eleven'. Continue to nineteen.

  5. 5

    At nineteen, add one more unit: 'Ten units. We change them for a ten.' Exchange for a ten bar, remove the tablet: 'twenty'.

  6. 6

    Continue through the tens over several sessions.

  7. 7

    At 99, add one unit, exchange to ten tens, then exchange ten tens for the hundred square: 'one hundred'.

Extensions, easiest to hardest

  1. Guide names any number to 99; the child builds it with beads and tablets.
  2. Child writes the numbers 1–100 on paper in rows of ten.
  3. Say the number one more and one less than a given number.

Control of error

The unit beads reach ten at the same moment the tablet reaches 9 and must be changed; if the beads and numeral disagree, a step was skipped. Ten units matched against a ten bar confirm each exchange.

Ready to move on when the child…

  • Counts aloud from 1 to 100 without skipping a decade
  • Builds and reads any number to 99
  • Says the next ten after any number ending in 9

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