Every amount has a number name and a numeral we write. No objects at all is zero, written 0. A full ten-frame is ten, so the teen numbers are ten and some more: fourteen is a full ten-frame and four more, written 1 then 4. Numbers always come in the same counting order. The number just after is one more and the number just before is one less. Numbers said later when counting are bigger, so to put numbers in order, find the smallest, then the next, then the biggest.
Explore this idea with maths tools
Maths you can move
Build 8 + 5
Tap two gold counters to fill the ten-frame.
8 in the frame + 5 waiting. The total stays the same.
Words to know
- numeral
- the written symbol for a number, like 7 or 15
- zero
- the number for none at all, written 0
- ten-frame
- two rows of five boxes that hold up to ten counters
- just before / just after
- the number one less / one more when you count
Worked examples
How many counters? A full ten-frame and 4 more
- 1.The full ten-frame is ten.
- 2.Count on along the second frame: 11, 12, 13, 14.
- 3.Fourteen is written 1 then 4.
= 14
How many counters? An empty ten-frame
- 1.There are no counters at all.
- 2.None is zero, written 0.
= 0
What number comes just before 13?
- 1.Count: 11, 12, 13.
- 2.The number said just before 13 is 12.
= 12
Count back. What is the missing number? 16, 15, ?, 13, 12
- 1.The numbers get smaller by one: the row counts back.
- 2.The number before 15 is 14.
- 3.Check: the number before 14 is 13.
= 14
For parents
Method: Ten and some more
What to say: How many is a full ten-frame? How many more are there? Which number do we say first when we count?
Common mistakes:
- Misses a counter while counting the picture, so the number is one too small.
- Counts one counter twice, so the number is one too big.
- Counts the empty boxes of the ten-frame instead of the counters (an empty frame becomes 10 rather than 0).
- For a teen number, counts only the counters after the full ten-frame and forgets the ten.
- Writes a teen number back to front (fifteen → 51), because the ones are heard first in the word.
- Gives the number in the question instead of the number just before or after it.
- Mixes up before and after: counts forwards when the question needs the number before (or in a counting-back row).
- Continues the row after its last number instead of filling the gap in the middle.
- Skips a number when saying the row, so writes the number that comes after the gap.
- Picks the smallest number when asked for the biggest, or the biggest when asked for the smallest.
- Compares only the last digit, so thinks 9 is bigger than 12 because 9 is bigger than 2.
- Does not reorder the numbers and gives the one written in the middle of the list.