I am thrilled to be returning full-time to PreK this year after many years of younger students and teaching multi-age last year. During our second free-choice period in my classroom, I pull students outside for small group, aka teacher table activities. One of the Halloween-themed math activities I am planning for next month is these Halloween ten frames. Are you familiar with ten frames? If you aren’t, those little grids are useful tools for understanding number sense, specifically in relation to ten. In early childhood, we don’t need to teach our students explicitly about place value. Still, activities like this PreK Halloween math activity will help create a strong foundation for that learning later on.
I’ll show you how I use them.
Gather your materials. You will need ten frame cards like mine, some mini erasers ( Dollar Tree and Target are the best places for these), a tray, and a little bowl. I like to laminate my ten frame cards because I use them a lot and use them outside ( because of covid, we do a lot of learning outside). If I laminate them, I can use painter’s tape and tape them to a tray to keep them from blowing away.
When I introduce a child to a ten-frame activity like this PreK Halloween math activity, we count all ten squares in the frame no matter what number is on the card. Left to right, then sweep down and count the lower row to ten.
Next, together we count the number we see on the card on our fingers. Before I move on, I’ll connect that number to the frame, saying something like, ” We filled three of the ten squares.” then place that same number of mini erasers on the frame, making sure to place them in individual squares. This helps to develop and reinforce the concept of one-to-one correspondence. A skill that is vital not only for math but for reading too.
Now I’ll say something about the empty squares – depending on the child, I may say, ” Are there lots of empty squares left or just a few?” or maybe if the child’s number sense is a little more developed, I’ll say”How many empty squares are there? If we fill them how many erasers will there be?” or “How many more erasers do we need to fill all the squares and get to ten?” Remember, what we are modeling with these questions is number sense. We want children to start to understand all of these numbers in relation to ten. At a basic level, that is that 3 is less than 10. Eventually, all these prompts and counting will help develop addition and subtraction skills.
After using these Halloween ten frame cards in my small group time, I pop them in my math center during free choice.
Here’s the thing when I pull my students away from free choice, I better have something rad for them to do… so I have to make it fun and appealing. How rad are these?
That’s why I made these Halloween Ten Frame Cards so darn cute! I know my PreK class will love these, and it’s going to be hard to wait a few weeks before I share them. You can all 10 cards right now for just $1.99! Click the buy now button and print at home!
Carrey Wagon says
These are cute 10 Frames but I was thinking, shouldn’t there be items to count that represent the Number in focus?
Like three Owls and the Number 3 or maybe I’m incorrect. Anyway, I purchased them and intend to print them and try them with my class. Thank you for this cute resource that I’m sure my kids will find engaging.
Allison McDonald says
You aren’t incorrect, you are just mixing two math skills together. I am such a nerd that I dove into this idea while creating this resource because I had the same question.
I ultimately decided against it because while the drawing is there for decoration what we want the children to focus on is the numeral and the squares. This isn’t a matching activity it’s all about transferring the numeral and what it represents to a quantity in the ten frames.