Counting by Tens

100 Beads for the 100 Days Necklace

When they're age 1, they can understand the quantity 2 because of body symmetry - 2 hands, 2 arms, 2 legs... two hands to grab a pair of shoes. Even Lincoln will shout TWO when you say one.

Then at age 2-3 they can begin to understand quantities, maybe up to six objects, especially if you line them up. They are understanding quantity by volume - a lane of four cars is more than a lane of two cars. They might be counting to 20, I remember maggie counting to 20 sometime between 18-24 months. However they don't really understand 20.

The sample above was a bracelet created by a friend's class for the 100-Day Celebration. There's a tag to mark every 10 beads though I don't know why there's no individual tag for 10, 20 and 30.

In the Montessori program they also use beads, the weight the touch and feel of 1, 10, 100 and 1000. Here is a summary of three short lessons.

You could also make your own set from beans and popsicle sticks. That would be great for teaching tens and ones.  Glue ten beans on a stick and have a few extra "ones" to build numbers.