Common Core Math: What are Tens Frames?

District Strategic Goal #1: Continuously Improve Student Growth and Achievement
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Kindergarten and First Grade students work with tens frames on a daily basis. Tens frames are a key tool and strategy for developing foundational math skills and number sense to meet the Common Core State Standards. Learn more about tens frames by watching these short videos:
Understanding that numbers are composed of tens and ones is an important foundational concept, setting the stage for work with larger numbers. A strong sense of “ten” is a prerequisite for place value understanding and mental calculations. Using a ten frame, students can easily see that 6 is 1 more than 5 and 4 less than 10, or that 8 can be seen as “5 and 3 more” and as “2 away from 10.” Once students are able to visualize the numbers 1through 10, they begin to develop mental strategies for manipulating  those numbers, all within the context of the numbers’ relationship to ten.
Ten frames and dot cards can be used to develop students’ subitizing skills, the ability to “instantly see how many”. Two types of subitizing exist. Perceptual subitizing is closest to the original definition of subitizing: recognizing a number without using other mathematical processes. For example, a child as young as two might “see 3” without using any learned mathematical knowledge. Conceptual subitizing is being used when a person sees an eight dot domino and “just knows” the total number. The number pattern is recognized as a composite of parts and as a whole. The domino is seen as being composed of two groups of four and as “one eight”.
Some resources to practice tens frames at home are:
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