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32) Starting at Twenty: Using Numbers

Counting Backwards from 20

71.1 Near Ten Strategy 9

Understanding Activity Instruction

This is an ‘understanding’ (proficiency strand) activity . It takes longer than other ‘fluency’ activities. 

  • Please allow 40 minutes for each session. These sessions are hard! The concept is hard. Organising the cards and blocks is VERY hard. Please plan for some down time after each session this week. The students, and you, will need it. Congratuations for surviving this week. It’s gets easier from here…promise!
  • Don’t worry about getting the students to place the cards neatly. It will be a huge mess. Learning and developing resilence is a messy business. What’s important is that at the end of the year the students realise that ‘sixteen’ is this, 16 (not 61), and that the digit ‘one’ in 16 is worth ten . 
The clocks on the Tier One Sample Planner need to be corrected to these times. I will have these ready for to download for the start of 2025. Sorry for the confusion! Kind regards, Narelle.

Implementation Option A

  • Monday: Use Place Value Arrow Cards.  Watch video “Activity 32: Using Numbers Session 1”. Say “tens then ones”. 
  • Tuesday: Use Place Value Arrow Cards.  Watch video “Activity 32: Using Numbers Session 2”. Say “ten add __ is __”. 
  • Wednesday: Use Number Cards. Watch video “Activity 32: Using Numbers Session 3”.  Say number names.
Implementation Option B
Place value with teens is notoriously hard because of the English language. If you can tolerate five days of annoying cards, and you think your students need more practice, this is option is for you.  
 
  • Monday: Use Place Value Arrow Cards.  Watch video “Activity 32: Using Numbers Session 1“. Say “tens then ones”. 
  • Tuesday: Use Place Value Arrow Cards.  Watch video “Activity 32: a little easier” (scroll down to access). Say “ten and __ is __”.
  • Wednesday: Use Place Value Arrow Cards.  Watch video “Activity 32: Using Numbers Session 2“. Say “ten add __ is __”. 
  • Thursday: Use Number Cards. Watch video “Activity 32: Using Numbers Session 3“.  Say number names.
  • Friday: Use Place Value Arrow Cards.  Watch video “Activity 32: a little harder” (scroll down to access). Write numbers.
You don’t have to do all these videos in one week. Spreading the concept lessons over multiple weeks is often more effective.

Setting Up Cards

Please note, even though at the end of this activity students count backwards, I have chosen to set up the place value arrow cards and number cards in counting order. Using the cards is hard enough. “A little harder” version is to set up the cards using the counting backwards sequence.

Place Value Arrow Cards

Click the image to download the pdf.

Please print on card. The thicker the card, the easier they are to manipulate.  

Number Cards

Click the image to download the pdf.

Please print on card. The thicker the card, the easier they are to manipulate.  

Mathematics

  • Develop fluency counting backwards in the correct order from 20 to 10.
  • Identify numbers from 11 to 19 as a two-part bond made of 10 plus a single-digit number.
  • Connect the length of the Bond Blocks, number name and numeral.

Language

  • One shorter.
  • One less than.
  • One number before.
  • A number is made up of digits in the same way a word is made up of letters. The number 16 is made up of the digits one and six.
    Place value: The place of a digit in a number determines the digit’s value (worth).
  • In the number 16 the digit one is in the tens place so is worth one ten, ten.
  • The digit six is in the ones place so is worth six ones, six.

Differentiation

A little easier

Implementation Option B

Many students benefit doing this week over five sessions, instead of three. This plan is listed above under the heading “Implementation Option B”.

This is the video for Tuesday. Watch it after the Session 1 video, before the Session 2 video. 

See the Board 1 from the A Little Easier chapter.

A little harder

Write the Number

Player One builds the number using the arrow cards, saying “tens, then one”.

Player Two writes and says the number.

AAA

P

AAA

P

Progression