Ten in the Den
Making ten, by finding the two numbers that fill the frame
How it plays
Each card shows a number and the same number of dots on a ten-frame. Your child taps one card, then hunts for the card that fills the frame to ten. A right pair clears away. A wrong pair just gets a friendly nudge, and nothing is ever taken away. The game says every number aloud, so it works before your child can read the numerals.
What it's for
Making ten, by finding the two numbers that fill the frame. It adapts as your child plays: after a few rounds that go well it steps up a little, and after a couple of hard ones it quietly steps back. The level number only ever goes up.
There is no score to lose and no way to fail. A wrong move is met with a gentle nudge, and a level ends when it's won.
Away from the screen: Egg-carton ten
About two minutes, with things most homes have.
- Cut two cups off a dozen egg carton so it has ten.
- Put some pegs or big pasta shells in it.
- How many more to fill it? Count the empty cups together.
Three questions to ask while they play
- How many dots are on this card?
- How many empty spaces are left in the frame?
- Which card fills it up to ten?
Play together
Things to say or ask
- How many dots are empty? That's how many more you need.
- Count the full ones, then count on.
- Ten! The frame is full. How did you know?
Taking turns on one device: Take turns: one player counts the empty spaces aloud, the other finds the card.
Talk-about cards: a question a day for a week, for the car or the dinner table. Print them, or read them from your phone.
If they find it hard
Count the dots out loud together before choosing. Or try Count on Me first: knowing the numbers before making ten with them.
A sheet to print
Print the Ten in the Den sheet
One A4 page, in black and white or colour.
From two to eight
Big Steps: Pairs that make 20, on two ten-frames. For seven- and eight-year-olds: AC9M1N04 (add and subtract numbers within 20, using physical and virtual materials, part-part-whole knowledge to 10 and a variety of calculation strategies), AC9M2A02 (recall and demonstrate proficiency with addition facts to 20; extend and apply facts to develop related subtraction facts).
Switch Tiny Steps or Big Steps on in Who's playing?, on the grown-ups' page.
What it practises
- Making ten. Pairs of numbers that make ten.
AC9MFN04 (Mathematics, Foundation); AC9M1N04 (Mathematics, Year 1) - Seeing how many. Knowing how many without counting, using ten-frames.
AC9MFN02 (Mathematics, Foundation); AC9MFN04 (Mathematics, Foundation)
The codes are from the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (for children from birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2). Each links to the official wording. Every skill, and the games for it.
What it costs, and what we collect
Nothing, and nothing. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Which games have been played is remembered on your own device and is never sent anywhere. The full version is here, and it's short.
Where it lives
Ten in the Den lives in The Bobbing Billabong — numbers and counting. It works on a phone, a tablet or a classroom screen, and once it's been opened it keeps working with no signal at all.
Updated