We used counters to explore different ways of making 10, helping to build our understanding of number composition. The children dropped the counters onto a plain piece of paper and carefully observed how many were red and how many were yellow, discussing their findings aloud. This hands-on approach encouraged them to think about parts and wholes in a visual and concrete way. We then used Polypad on the interactive whiteboard to represent these combinations in a tens frame, making the structure of 10 even clearer. The children also practised recording their ideas by writing a number sentence next to each representation, linking the practical activity to written addition.
