Tens Frame Games

I love using games in the classroom especially to help teach math.

You set up the 'game' you teach the rules and then you let them go for it.  They race, they compete and they try and beat each other, and they have fun.

But what they often don't realize is they are learning, and the learning is really getting in.

I mean, it ticks all the boxes, its doing, seeing, and hearing.

So for me it's a win win.  Engaged happy students who are having fun while they are learning and best of all want to play the games again and again (even outside of math lessons).

With my tens frame games, the set up is easy.  Each student gets a tens frame, ten counters, a recording sheet and a means of spinning a spinner (this can be done via a pencil and paper clip or brad or by attaching a spinner.

You start with 5 monkeys on the tens frame.

Spin the spinner and see what it lands on.  You then follow the instructions e.g minus 3, so you remove 3 monkeys from your tens frame and write the equation on the recording sheet.

The answer then becomes your starting point for your next equation

So you keep spinning and adding and subtracting the monkeys until you reach ten monkey's in your tens frame.

The game can be played without the tens frame and monkeys but it does help your students see the equation and help them answer the equations.

Best part is it can be played by yourself as practice or in pairs as a race to see who can fill their frame the fastest.


If you would like to check out my tens frame games I have a few listed in my TPT store just click HERE where you can find this a more tens and twenty frame games for your classroom.