Hands-On Golden Beads: Tens and Units
Single beads, ten-bars and hundred squares — discover place value the hands-on way.
⏱️ Micro Plan — 4 short parts · about 20 min in total
- 1What Is It?5 min
- 2See It with Pictures5 min
- 3Practice5 min
- 4Quiz Time5 min
🎯 Learning objectives
After completing this lesson, the child should be able to:
- Understand units and tens with bead materials
- Build two-digit numbers from tens and units
- See why 12 means one ten and two units
In hands-on learning, children hold numbers in their hands. Today we meet the famous golden beads — the secret to understanding big numbers.
Meet the beads
- 🥇 The unit bead — one single golden bead. That is 1.
- 📿 The ten-bar — ten beads strung together. That is 10.
- 🔲 The hundred square — ten ten-bars joined together. That is 100!
Build a number
Take one ten-bar and two unit beads. Lay them out: one ten and two units.
That number is 12 — and now you can see why the "1" in 12 means ten, and the "2" means two!
Build more
- Two ten-bars and three units = 23
- Three ten-bars and five units = 35
- Four ten-bars and zero units = 40
The trading game
Count out ten unit beads, then trade them for one ten-bar. Ten ones always become one ten — that is the whole secret of our number system!
Practice on EduManual
When counting feels easy, climb to addition up to 100 — the beads made your brain ready.