Tens Boards Activity Set
An essential classroom resource, this Tens Boards Activity Set guides discovery of place value concepts through hands-on manipulation of numbered cards. The wooden storage box contains specially designed cards showing numbers in both digit and word form, where children build two-digit numbers while understanding the relationship between tens and units. A strong fit for developing mathematical foundations through concrete materials that make abstract number concepts visible and tangible.
“Education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment.”
The Tens Boards Activity Set addresses the critical developmental period when children transition from counting individual objects to understanding our decimal number system.
- Understanding place value through physical separation of tens and units
- Reading and constructing two-digit numbers from 10 to 99
- Connecting number symbols to written number words
- Recognizing patterns in the decimal number system
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These specially designed cards make visible the invisible structure of two-digit numbers by physically separating tens from units. The wooden storage box provides a defined workspace where children can systematically build numbers from 10 to 99, discovering that each two-digit number contains groups of ten plus additional units. Through manipulating these numbered cards showing both digit and word forms, children experience the predictable pattern of our number system - after nine comes a new ten, creating a concrete foundation for place value understanding. The Tens Boards transform the abstract concept of 'forty-seven' into a tangible reality: four tens cards plus seven unit cards. This material exists because children need to see and touch number construction before they can mentally manipulate larger quantities.
How to present it
Follow the Montessori method of presentation for optimal child development.
Remove the wooden box lid and place it beside the box. Arrange the tens cards (10, 20, 30...90) in order on the left side. Place unit cards (1-9) in sequence on the right.
- 1
Invite the child to build the number 11 by selecting the '10' card and placing the '1' card on top, aligning it to cover the zero
Demonstrate the precise placement so only one digit shows in the units place - 2
Continue building 12, 13, through 19, naming each number as you construct it
Pause at 19 to emphasize 'What comes after nineteen? Twenty!' - 3
Build 20 by removing all unit cards and selecting the '20' tens card
Let the child discover the pattern of returning to the beginning of unit cards - 4
Invite the child to continue building numbers sequentially or to construct specific numbers you name
Alternate between sequential work and random number building
Every Child Is a Little Creator
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Since 1929
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