In this early math activity, the child uses coloured bead bars that represent the quantities: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten. Each bar’s length contains as many beads as its corresponding number. The child uses these bead bars to make combinations that equal 10.
Placing a ten bar vertically on the left side of the mat, the child then chooses one of the coloured bead bars and places it beside the ten bar. Counting out the difference in length between the two bars, the child then looks for the bead bar that corresponds to that difference and adds it to the first coloured bead bar; the child has now made “ten” by combining two quantities.
