Foundation Class 

Friends of Ten in Maths

What are Friends of Ten?

Whether you call it 'friends of ten', making ten, or combinations to ten, learning ways to make ten is an important skill to build the Preps’ number sense and help with simple addition fluency. It is important that the students experience breaking apart (partitioning) and building to ten. It is essential for them to physically see those number partnerships and how they can be reversed. 

The Prep students have been taught ‘Friends of Ten’ using an approach which slowly builds onto the previously taught stages in sequence. This allows teaching to be done explicitly, using a multi-sensory approach and makes learning accessible to them all.

The Prep students have been using manipulatives (concrete level) to gain an understanding of ‘Friends of Ten’. The students have made great gains at this level and they have now moved onto using images to represent the objects (representational level). We have spent plenty of time practising this concept using drawings and virtual images which they love. The level we are at now is using the numbers and symbols (abstract level) to represent our ‘Friends of Ten’.

This will be an ongoing focus for the next few weeks. The hands-on learning combined with the symbols and numerals are promoting better overall conceptual understanding which will benefit the students in the long run.