Five-Frame and Ten-Frame Math Talks

Five- and ten-frames support students to make sense of quantities to five and ten. This practice can build understanding of the base-ten numerical system. These frames also help students to compose and decompose quantities and facilitate understanding and discourse related to addition and subtraction.

Considerations when using Five-Frames and Ten-Frames:

• Ask students what they know or notice about the rows.
• Questions you might ask students:
  • "How could we figure out how many dots in a different way?"
  • "What does it mean when the row is full of dots?"
  • "What does it mean when it does not contain any dots?"

Five-Frame and Ten-Frame Resources:

• Ten-Frame, Starting a Math Talk
• Completed Ten-Frame (5s) Planning Guide, Math Talks
• It Makes Sense! Using Ten-Frames to Build Number Sense, Grades K-2