Decades

Thanks for visiting NZMaths.
We are preparing to close this site and currently expect this to be in June 2024
but we are reviewing this timing due to the large volume of content to move and
improvements needed to make it easier to find different types of content on
Tāhūrangi. We will update this message again shortly.

For more information visit https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz/updates-to-nzmaths

Purpose:

To help your child to develop their knowledge of place value - the number of tens in numbers up to hundred.

What you need:

Magazines or 'junk' mail - advertising leaflets for supermarkets and stores.

What to do:

Help your child to cut out numbers in the range 1 – 100 from the newspaper or circulars.

Work together to sort the numbers in piles of the same decade - 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s

Skip counting the number of tens in the number (10, 20, 30…).

For example, for 56 skip count 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 using your fingers to count the 5 tens.

When you have the numbers in piles ask your child what is the same about the numbers.
For example all the 50s numbers start with 5 and have 5 tens in them.

Help your child to cut out a few more numbers and ask “How many tens are in this number? What pile does it belong in?”

What to expect your child to do:

To firstly skip count in tens, then to recognise the digit in the tens place also tells them the number of tens in the number.

Variation:

  • As you come across other numbers up to 100 ask your child how many tens are in the number.
  • Use other languages to count in 10s

He Kupu Māori:

ten tekau
twenty rua tekau
thirty toru tekau
forty whā tekau
fifty rima tekau
sixty ono tekau
seventy whitu tekau
eighty waru tekau
ninety iwa tekau
pile whakaputu (-a)
count tatau (ria)

He Whakawhitinga Kōrero:

  • Kimihia ngā tau mai i te 0 ki te 100, ka tapahia ai. (Look for numbers from 0 te 100 and cut them out.)
  • Tatauria ngā tekau kei roto i tēnā tau. (Count the tens in that number.)
  • E hia ngā tekau kei roto i tēnā tau? Tatauria. (How many tens in that number? Count them)
  • Tatauria ngā tekau i ō matimati. (Count the tens on your fingers.)
  • Whakaputua ngā rima tekau ki konā, ngā ono tekau ki konā ... (Make a pile of the 50’s there, the 60’s there ...)

Download a file of this activity:

PDF (160KB)