Counting to 99
With the tens named, the child now counts through every number from 10 to 99 on the Ten Board — sliding unit cards over the zeros and adding one bead at a time, trading ten loose beads for a ten-bar at every new ten. This is where counting past twenty stops being a chant and becomes a structure.
Materials
- Seguin Ten Board (Board B) with its nine unit cards (1–9) — or index-card versions: nine tens cards and nine small unit cards sized to cover just the zero
- Nine golden ten-bars and about ten loose golden unit beads — or bundles of ten (craft sticks, straws) plus ten loose ones of the same object
- A work mat with room beside the board for the growing bead quantity
No materials at home? Use the virtual Ten Board (Seguin B).
Before this lesson
Aims
Direct
- Count in sequence from 10 to 99, building each number with both symbol and quantity
- Experience that ten loose units are always exchanged for one ten-bar — the moment the count crosses into a new ten
Indirect
- Preparation for the Hundred Board and for reading and writing any two-digit number
- Concrete groundwork for carrying (“regrouping”) in addition with the golden beads and stamp game
- Absorbing the rhythm of base ten: the units count 1 to 9, then start over
Presentation
- 1 Set out the board with one ten-bar beside the 10 row. Point to the 10.Ten. Let’s count on from ten.
- 2 Place one loose unit bead beside the ten-bar, then slide the 1 card over the zero of the 10 row so it reads 11.Ten and one — eleven.
- 3 Continue one bead at a time: swap the card for the 2 to make 12, the 3 to make 13, and so on. Let your child place the bead and slide the card as soon as they reach for it.Ten and two — twelve.
- 4 At 19, add one more bead and pause. Count the loose beads together: ten! Look at the pile with mock alarm.Ten loose beads! Ten units make a ten. Let’s change them for a ten-bar.
- 5 Have your child gather the ten loose beads, set them aside, and take one ten-bar in exchange. Slide the unit card off, and move down to the 20 row: two ten-bars, no loose beads.Two tens — twenty.
- 6 Carry on the same way — 21, 22, 23 … — exchanging at every new ten. Do not push for 99 in one sitting; stopping at 30 or 40 and continuing another day is exactly how the material is meant to be used.Where did we stop yesterday? Let’s build it and keep counting.
- 7 Over later sittings, hand the whole process to your child: they place beads, slide cards, and call the exchanges while you simply watch and listen.You be the counter today. I’ll listen.
Points of interest
- The pile of loose beads growing and growing — then vanishing into a single golden bar
- Sliding a unit card over the zero and watching 30 become 34
- Discovering that the unit cards repeat identically on every row: after the 9 always comes an exchange
- Reaching 99 and finding there is no card and no bead left to go further — the board is full
Control of error
- The loose beads can always be recounted against the card showing — if they disagree, counting reveals it
- There is no unit card for ten: a tenth loose bead has nothing to slide over the zero, which itself signals the exchange
- The exchange balances physically — exactly ten beads leave the mat and exactly one ten-bar arrives, so nothing is gained or lost
Vocabulary
- exchange
- units
- tens
- twenty-one, twenty-two … (the composed number names)
Variations
- Start the count at a later ten — build 60 and count 61, 62, 63 … to keep long sessions fresh
- Count backward from a small landmark like 25, returning a bead at each step and breaking a ten-bar back into ten units at each ten
- Parent builds a number with beads only; the child sets the board and cards to match
Extensions
- Count a real collection past ten — buttons, dry pasta, building bricks — grouping into cups of ten as you go, then read the total as “tens and units”
- Count aloud to 99 in the car or on a walk, with your child taking over at each new ten
- Play “What comes after 39?” at odd moments; the exchange moments are the ones worth quizzing
Follow-up work (pencil & paper)
- Print a teens-and-tens worksheet: your child reads two-digit numbers, writes the missing ones in counting sequences, and matches numerals to tens-and-units pictures.Printable: Teens & Tens
- Make a counting strip: fold a paper strip into boxes and have your child write a stretch of the count (for example 27 through 43), saying each number aloud — the exchange numbers 30 and 40 get a circle.
- Say a number between 11 and 99 and have your child write it, then draw it as sticks and dots — one long stick for each ten, one dot for each unit.
What comes next
After counting to 99 with beads and cards, the Hundred Board is next: the same numbers, now as tiles placed 1 to 100 in a grid, followed by skip counting on the Hundred Board and the bead chains. In parallel, the golden beads of the decimal system extend these same exchanges into hundreds and thousands.
Next in this strand: The Hundred Board