Early Learners: Tens and Ones

Understanding Early Learners: Tens and Ones

Bundling is a useful idea because it creates a pattern that can be used again and again. A student can touch each object while counting it, then make a bundle only after the full group is counted. This helps prevent a common mistake of calling a group a ten before it really has ten objects.

A rubber band around straws, a cup holding counters, or a ten-frame filled with dots makes the group easy to see. Once a bundle is made, it should be counted as one group of ten, not counted one by one again. The single objects left outside the bundle show what has not yet formed a full group.

Place value works because a digit gets its value from its position. The same digit can mean very different amounts in different places. In the number thirty-two, the three represents three full groups of ten, while the two represents two single units.

Zero is important in this system. In forty, there are four groups of ten with no loose ones. The zero keeps the four in the tens position.

Without it, the written number would mean something else. Students should practice building a number with objects first, saying the groups aloud, then matching the model to the written number.

This idea becomes especially important during addition and subtraction. When adding eight ones to seven ones, students can put all the ones together. They can make one full bundle and still have five single ones.

The answer is fifteen because it has one ten and five ones. During subtraction, a ten can be opened back into ten separate ones when there are not enough loose ones to take away. For example, to subtract six ones from a number with one ten and two ones, the ten is exchanged for ten ones.

There are then twelve ones available, so six can be removed. These exchanges are the foundation for later written methods.

Tens and ones appear in everyday counting. A shop may pack items in groups of ten. Ten pennies have the same value as one dime.

A class might count pencils by making groups rather than starting a long count from one each time. When learning, students should pay close attention to whether they are counting groups or individual objects. They should keep tens separate from loose ones on a mat or table.

It helps to say the number in full words, such as two tens and six ones, before writing it. Drawing quick sticks for tens and dots for ones can show thinking clearly when blocks are not available.