TEN

OBSERVING TEN WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

Observing ten includes exploring geometric expressions of ten, i.e., decagons, decagrams; 
polyhedrons such as a decagonal pyramid and a decagonal prism.

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

1. Have a table with natural and other characteristic objects for children to look at and gently touch. Make a ceremony of the placement of any new object or its picture to help create interest (e.g., orange or grapefruit cross-section, lobster, crab, squid, shrimp, scorpion).
2. “What do you know about ten?” (e.g., ten toes, ten fingers)
3. Play “I Spy with My Little Eye,” finding decagons and decagrams throughout the room.
4. Challenge children to make decagons and decagrams with their bodies.
5. Have ten children sit in chairs placed at the vertices of a decagon shape and help them hold a length of yarn to delineate the shape. Invite other children to lie down on the floor under the decagon and look up at it.
   

LIFE SKILLS

• Sort a collection of decagons according to size or color.
• Thread ten beads (gold) onto a pipe cleaner or length of string and fashion into jewelry.
• Stitch around edges of decagonal cards.
• Cut along a decagonal path.
  

SENSORIAL EXPLORATION

• Hang a mobile with decagons from the ceiling.
• Invite finger-tracing of various decagon and decagram shapes.
• Place tape to create a decagon on floor; invite children to various exercises (e.g., walking, sitting). Consider average length of children’s legs so that ten can sit here and reform the shape with their legs.
• Draw decagons in a tray of sand or shaving cream.
• “Draw” decagons with your finger in the palm of child’s hand or on his back.
• Feel sandpaper decagon and sandpaper numeral ten; make crayon rubbings of the same.
• Hold decagonal pyramids and decagonal prisms of various sizes, one at a time, in two hands. (Patterns are available for making various polyhedrons from paper or card stock.)
• Explore bubble-making with various open-form polyhedrons: decagonal pyramid and a decagonal prism.
• Explore patterning and tessellating properties of decagons; decagons will tessellate with triangles.
• Push or pull a ten-pound weight in a box or wagon.
  

MATH

• Explore a basket containing ten of various items (e.g., ten beads, ten pencils, ten apples).
  
• Name items that the child can find and bring to you on a tray (“Please bring me ten…”).
• Display currency units of choice (e.g., ten dollars, ten euros, ten yen, ten pesos).
• Count various objects in room by ten. (Counting and skip counting songs are available.)
• Display and work with units of measure (e.g., ten ounces, ten pounds, ten inches, ten feet, ten meters, ten minutes, ten hours).
  

LANGUAGE

• Read aloud picture books that harmonize with the number ten theme (e.g., Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang; 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle; 10 Minutes to Bedtime by Peggy Rathmann; Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox).
• Invite child to the nature table and engage child in conversation about the objects on display; have child write about the objects (teacher may write child’s words); invite child to “read” his story to his friends.
• Trace within decagonal stencils and around decagonal forms (pre-writing skill).
• Trace printed, broken-line decagons off or on writing lines (pre-writing skill); extend into connect-the-ten-dots activities.
• Pin-punch paper decagons (pre-writing skill).
• Provide materials for children to make little books about ten. Include pictures (e.g., a cake with ten candles, a fish tank with ten fish).
• Explore sign language for ten.
• Add relevant words to Word Wall (e.g., ten, tenth, decagon); Greek and Latin prefixes (e.g., deca—as in decapod, deci—as in decimal); include related pictures of natural and man-made constructs.
• Add to three-part card activities (e.g., decagon).
• Explore phrases (e.g., “nine times out of ten”).
  

CULTURE

• Spotlight the words for ten as you learn to count together, one to ten, in other languages.
• Look for expressions of ten on a variety of flags (e.g., Dominican Commonwealth).
• Share expressions of ten elsewhere in various cultures.
  

History and Timelines

• Add to the linear display of calendar months; guide understanding of ten months.
• Add to the linear display of photographs of a child; add one from his or her tenth birthday—continuing concept of a lifetime.
• Read stories about applicable history related to subject shown on currency (e.g., Alexander Hamilton and Franklin D. Roosevelt in conjunction with display of a ten-dollar bill and a dime).
• Refer to a linear timeline of the ages and find the early civilizations of Egypt, the Americas, and Islam; explore work of the ancient craftsmen who used geometry extensively, both structurally and symbolically; focus on ten and the geometric expressions of ten.
  

Art and Music

• Invite child to the nature table and engage child in conversation about the objects on display; have child draw/map the objects to create a still life.
• Print decagonal shapes using various items.
• Paste decagonal shapes.
• Stencil decagonal shapes.
• Explore what can be created with decagonal shapes.
• Cut or pin-punch decagonal shapes.
• Explore patterning and tessellating properties of decagons; decagons will tessellate with triangles.
• Provide coloring sheets with decagonal patterns.
• Marble-roll paint onto paper in decagonal pan or box.
• Look for decagons within selected pieces of art.
• Sing and dance (e.g., add tenth verse to “The Ants Go Marching”).
•  Introduce a performance by ten instrumentalists as a small chamber orchestra.

            
Science

• Look at The Periodic Table of Elements; ten is the atomic number of neon.
  

Botany/Zoology/Human Body

• Count our ten fingers; count our ten toes.
• Look at and count the legs on a lobster, crab, shrimp, or scorpion; a squid has ten tentacles.
• Show that citrus fruits often have ten segments.
  

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

1. Have children find an expression of ten outside (e.g., rocks, roly-polies, flowers).
2. Invite ten children to sit on the patio and roll a ball to each other; talk about the shape expressed, i.e., a decagon.
3. Have a bowling game and count the number of pins.

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• Classroom and home photos

• Books
• Educational materials 
• Items and activities that can enhance the number theme

Ten toes

Scorpion

Dime

Ten is the atomic number of neon.

"10 small toes all washed and warm"