One of the ways that we teach children to count by tens is through song. Any child can be taught to do this; it is simply memorization. There is not necessarily any mathematical understanding involved.
This is why it's important for us to spend time working with groups of ten to give children the understanding of WHEN we CAN count by tens.
Each child in my small group made a group of ten unifix cubes. When they were done, I asked how many cubes were in each stick. "Ten!" They shouted.
"How do you KNOW?" I asked.
(Pause)
"Because we counted them...?" One girl responded.
"Yes! Now that we know there are ten cubes in every group, we can count by tens!"
Each child in my small group made a group of ten unifix cubes. When they were done, I asked how many cubes were in each stick. "Ten!" They shouted.
"How do you KNOW?" I asked.
(Pause)
"Because we counted them...?" One girl responded.
"Yes! Now that we know there are ten cubes in every group, we can count by tens!"
Each child got a turn to be the "teacher" and point while we counted. It's interesting - the first time we do this every year, the children's one-to-one correspondence goes down the drain. They haven't yet associated each separate number (ten, twenty, thirty) with a separate group of ten. They regain this quickly. It's quite fascinating to watch.
We made necklaces to get some practice recognizing the numbers and putting them in order.
Again, we practiced making groups of ten.
The next day we found another fun way to practice making groups of ten.
We practiced putting our numbers in order again, too. The more we practice, the easier it gets!
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