Bridging 10

Years K - 4

Summary

Growing out of Ten Friends in the Free Tour section, where a red board is used to show one Ten Frame between two children, this board shows two Ten Frames, one for each child. Each of them will gain a score less than 10 in the game, but how many will they score altogether. As the name implies, this game encourages bridging ten and seeing the result as one ten and some 'other' ones. It leads into the activity Ten Tens, which is also in the Free Tour section. Suitable for threading.

Materials

  • One Poly Plug between two
  • One dice: a 10-face dice works well
 Bridging 10 Board

Acknowledgement

This activity was contributed by Markus Bucher, Kingston Primary School.

Procedure

Following a workshop on Early Years Numeracy I realised that Ten Friends could be readily adapted to encourage 'aha' moments related to bridging 10 - that first important step in understanding Place Value.
Two players use a red board set up as above. One player will put blue plugs in the board and one will put in yellow. Players take turns to roll a cube dice to get a score. A 10-face dice also works really well, but if this is not available numeral cards from 0-9 achieve the same result. Dot picture (rather than numeral) cards are even better for children still learning to count.

Players take turns to roll the dice, or select the numeral card, and place their number of plugs in the board. The result is something like the picture below.

Players now work out how many plugs there are all together by completing a ten (one side), if one can be made. Then they have to show what they have done on their calculator, eg: 7 + 5 = 12 (see example below). Encourage comparing the calculator result with the finished picture and noticing that when one ten has been made, the number on the calculator also has a 1 in it.

 

Content

  • 1:1 correspondence
  • addition facts beyond 10
  • addition facts to 10
  • conservation of number
  • counting
  • making groups of 10
  • numeral recognition
  • operations - whole number
  • place value
  • recording - calculator
  • recording - written
  • subitising
  • visual and kinaesthetic representation of number
Bridging 10 Board Comparing can work smoothly simply by placing the calculator above the board and asking: Do you notice anything?. Children will eventually see for themselves that the board might have to be turned so that the filled ten frame is on the same side as the 1 on the calculator. We now have a symbolic representation matching the visual and kinaesthetic aspects of the picture the children have created.

Sometimes two rolls are not sufficient to result in a ten. Rules can be altered to ensure a ten is made every time. For example:

  • Introduce the game as a co-operative rather than competitive one. Children keep rolling in turn until they 'know' that a ten could be made.
  • Play the game with both children rolling twice.
Matthew Harpley & John Harnett, St. Mary's Primary School, Moruya explored Bridging Tens with their Year 4 children. Exploration included recording outcomes on Poly Plug Paper. They comment:
Most of the students had ample number skills to bridge ten and had a sound knowledge of combinations to 10 and beyond. However, several students in Year 4 who are still developing their basic number skills found this activity engaging and of benefit. Having the visual representation of the Ten Frame it was easier for them to calculate what total was required to make a ten.

Extensions

Once the game is learned (this doesn't take long) there are several extensions:
  1. Can you check it another way?
    • Blue could be put in the yellow side to make the ten, or vice versa.
    • Children might begin with ten each and subtract their roll before exploring the combined outcome.
  2. Recording:


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