Show ten on the ten-hole box

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Your child fills every hole and says ten without counting the beans again.
• — Your child holds up both hands, fingers spread, and says that is ten too.
• — Shown the mark 10, your child says it is a 1 beside a 0 and points to the packed box.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Fill the last hole

   Start with nine and one empty hole. Let your child drop in the last bean. Say together: every hole is filled, the box is packed, and a packed box is ten.

2. 02

   Match two hands to the box

   Hold up both hands. One hand is five, like the top row. The other hand is five, like the bottom row. Two hands and a packed box show the same ten.

3. 03

   Read the mark 10

   Write 10 big on a card. It is the first mark with two parts, a 1 beside a 0. Point to the box and say ten, then point to the card.

4. 04

   Sort packed from not packed

   Build a few boxes, some full and some with a hole or a row left empty. Ask packed or not packed. Only a packed box is ten.

You will need: A dozen-egg carton cut down to two rows of five cups · About fifteen dried beans or buttons · Small counters like beans, buttons and pennies can choke a child, so stay at the table while they are out and put them away from younger children · A card with a big 10 on it

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Pour out a small pile of beans, more than ten. Ask your child to show ten on the box and leave the rest in the pile.

   Listen for  One bean in every hole, and then they stop. The box is packed, so the count is done, even with beans still in the pile.

2. Try 2

   Fill the box. Ask how many holes are empty.

   Listen for  None, zero. No hole is empty, so the box shows ten.

3. Try 3

   Put ten beans in the box, but crowd two into one cup so one hole stays empty. Ask whether the box is packed.

   Listen for  Not packed. There are ten beans, but one hole is empty. One bean to a hole is the rule, so moving the extra bean into the empty hole packs the box.

4. Try 4

   Show a packed box and ask your child to hold up that many fingers.

   Listen for  Both hands, all ten fingers.

5. Try 5

   Write 10 on a card. Ask your child to build what the card says.

   Listen for  Every hole filled, both rows. If they put in one bean and stop, point to the 0 beside the 1. The whole mark means ten, not one.

Watch for

• — Reading the mark 10 as one and zero. It is one number, ten, written with two marks side by side.

If it is not there yet

• — Go back to nine and its one empty hole. Fill it, take the bean out and fill it again, saying nine, ten, nine, ten.
• — Touch one finger to each cup of the egg carton, both hands, until ten fingers and ten cups feel like the same ten.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• Zig and Zag Count to Twenty · Lesson 14

  The Pencil Writes the Number

  Needs it because the writing set is 0 through 10, which the book has now finished as quantities.

• Zig and Zag Count to Twenty · Lesson 17

  One More

  Needs it because one more from nine lands on ten, which has to already be a full box.

• Zig and Zag Count to Twenty · Lesson 20

  Parts of Ten

  Needs it because the empty holes only mean the partner if the child already knows a full box is ten.