Ten frame
A ten frame is two rows of five boxes. A child puts one counter in each box and sees the number against 5 and 10: seven is a full top row and two more. Print it blank for counters, or filled to show 1 to 20.
Free printable PDF, Kindergarten to 1st grade.
One page, black and white, prints the same every time.
What is on the sheet
The sheet prints with these options: One large frame.
One ten frame, each two rows of five boxes, and every box 1.4 inches on a side. The child puts a counter in a box or draws a dot; nothing else prints.
Using a blank ten frame
Start in the top row at the left and put one counter in each box, just as you read. When the top row is full, carry on in the bottom row. The frame then shows a number without counting every counter: a full top row is 5, so a full top row and three more is 8. The empty boxes show how far the number is from 10, which is where the pairs that make 10 come from (CCSS K.OA.A.4).
The large frame has 1.4 inch boxes, big enough for counters, buttons or dried beans. The double ten frame stacks two frames for numbers to 20, and the page of eight small frames is for drawing dots in with a pencil.
The filled frames, 1 to 20
The filled pages show every number as dots in a frame, with the numeral beside it. On the 11 to 20 page each number is a full frame of ten and a second frame for the ones, so 14 is ten and four more. That is the idea behind teen numbers in kindergarten (K.NBT.A.1) and tens and ones in 1st grade (1.NBT.B.2).
Common questions
- Why fill the top row first?
- If every child fills the frame the same way, a number always looks the same. Six is always a full top row and one more, so children learn to see it at a glance instead of counting each dot.
- What is a double ten frame?
- Two ten frames, one over the other, for numbers up to 20. When the first frame is full, the child starts the second, and the full frame reads as one ten.