What is an Egg Box Ten Frame?
A ten frame works as a brilliant tool to help children understand numbers, addition, and subtraction. Schools mainly use two forms of 10 frames: moulded plastic with a very similar form to an egg box or a drawn grid with two rows of five boxes. If you simply play games with a used 10 egg carton this is just as good, in fact it offers more powerful learning than a drawn version.
Why is a ten frame such a good visual and hands-on tool
Our human brain can see without counting, but only up to five if the objects are arranged randomly, teachers call this subitising up to five. Learn more about subitising here. Seeing for example four objects without counting individually one, two, three, four...takes your child’s understanding of four to a higher level. With practise a ten frame allows this understanding to happen up to ten.
How To Use an Egg Box Ten Frame to help your child with Addition
☺ Talk about these 10 frame pictures with your child.
★ Pass it on ★Say for example “I can see three conkers and two rose hips, five altogether, one full row.”
To play 10 frame games you will need
An empty egg carton that held 10 eggs (or cut the end off a 12 egg carton.).
Pebbles, cones, toy characters, lego bricks, buttons, bottle tops… anything that interests your child and fits in one section. 2 distinct colours/sets work best for addition.
Card (cereal packet)
Small treats : raisins, cereal hoops… (optional)
How to help a child learn which pairs of numbers add up to make ten - number bonds to ten - using an egg box ten frame
☺ Playfully share filling the egg box ten frame with objects of two colours/types.
★ Pass it on ★ Say the matching sum out loud. For example "I can see four add six equals ten"
☺ Make a set of sum cards, keeping one side blank and making one card for each different sum you discover.
Play the Egg Box Shuffle Game
☺ Shuffle the cards and place face down in a pile.
☺ Take turns
☺ Player 1 places some objects of one colour/type in neighbouring sections of the egg box .
☺ Player 2 fills the rest of the sections with a second colour/type.
☺ Both players take a card from the pile and collect a treat/ score a point if their card matches the egg box sum.
To encourage your child to develop powerful mental images and have a laugh, try playing with eyes closed, with for example two types of toy characters or two sizes of lego brick.
How to help a child learn addition sums with answers between 5 and 10- using an egg box ten frame
☺On different days choose one number 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 .Modify and play the activities outlined for number bonds to 10.
Extend the learning further
☺ Modify the sum cards by copying the answer on each card onto the blank side.
☺ Play the egg box shuffle game choosing for example from the ‘8’ cards in one pile and the ‘9’ cards in a separate pile.
★ Pass it on ★ Talk about how you chose which pile to take a card from.
