This candy heart ten frames math activity is a great way to work on basic number facts with a fun Valentine’s Day twist designed for Preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st grade kiddos!
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What are Ten Frames?
Ten frames are a tool commonly found in preschool, Kindergarten, and first grade that help children with counting, mental math, and place value. This ten frame math activity uses the numbers 1-20 with candy hearts and drawing hearts.
This activity is great for my kids who are tangible learners because it helps them to physically compose and decompose the numbers on the frame. We can use them for composing and decomposing numbers in relation to 5 and 10.
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Ten frames help kids to develop a strong number sense.
This doesn’t mean that they are memorizing number facts. Instead, they are learning to manipulate and form connections about numbers.
Using these candy heart ten frames emphasizes basic number facts to develop counting and addition skills. You can use ten frames to identify how many items or empty squares there are, fill a certain number of items in the frame, count how many items are needed to fill the remaining squares, and combine methods to introduce basic addition and subtraction problems.
Ten frames are common in Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms, but you can absolutely start preschoolers with ten frames. My two preschoolers, ages 3 and 4, both work with ten frames at least once a week.
Ten frames are a highly effective way to learn about numbers!
Pairing these with candy hearts makes it super fun as well! We talked about how five and one is six and what happens if the whole top row of the ten frame is filled. We also discussed how we know we have ten when we fill the entire frame. These are all great stepping stones in growing number sense!
There is no need to go overboard with pushing your child to do all of them at one time! Do a couple of them and come back as your introduce this activity!
Drawing Hearts 11-20 Ten Frames
Using the candy heart ten frames math activity helps kids to understand place value as well as composing and decomposing numbers. In the drawing hearts worksheet, kids work with the numbers 11-20.
This worksheet is an ideal time to talk about place value. For example, when we drew hearts for fourteen, we discussed how we have 1 ten and 4 ones, which is 14.
You might enjoy: Candy Corn Math: Compose & Decompose the Number 10!
Introducing ten frames early helps set kids up for success in school.
Using opportunities like Valentine’s Day makes introducing new concepts to kids super fun! Introducing ten frames to preschoolers is such a fantastic way to set your kids up for success later on. Kids won’t be surprised or unsure of what ten frames are when they begin using them in Elementary school.
We love ten frames because they allow kids to get a head start on visualizing numbers and developing conceptual learning skills. This enables them to rapidly recall groups of objects due to a deeper number sense.
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Valentine's Day
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