Up through ten

A bead string is an excellent linear representation for developing the up-through-ten strategy.

Clearly mark the decades on the bead string and arrange the beads in sets of five. This supports non-counting-by-one strategies. Knowing the number facts for the counting numbers to 10 is essential. You can watch the Up-Through-Ten video.

You can download the Up-Through-Ten video transcript.

Up-through-ten strategies can be practised using the learning object L91 The part-adder: make your own easy sums.

This object uses a continuous model with the ones grouped within each bar.

Screen grab from L91 The part-adder: make your own easy sums.
Source: © Education Services Australia, 2011.

Highlight the characteristics of problems where the up-through-ten strategy is or is not needed.

For example, 8 + 6 = ? is suitable as only two more are required to make up to the next decade. However, 6 + 5 is not suitable and is more appropriately solved using other strategies like near doubles.

These ideas are further explored in Number Facts: Addition and Subtraction and Place Value.