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Their First

Free printable ·

Counting mats: a raft of ten

In Their First Counting, ducks fill numbered places on the pond, one for each number, and ten make one full raft. These sheets put the same pond on the table: two rafts with places numbered 1 to 20, twenty paper counters, and a Count to card a grown-up writes on. You need scissors and about five minutes. No app is needed.

How to use it

  1. Print the sheets. A grown-up cuts out the counters on sheet 2 along the dashed lines. Sheet 3 is optional. For a child who still puts things in their mouth, skip the paper counters and put a big thing on each place instead: a spoon, a block, a teddy.
  2. Start small. Write a number on the Count to card, such as 3 or 5, and lay it beside the first raft.
  3. Count in order. Your child puts one duck on place 1, then place 2, then place 3, and you say each number as it lands. One duck on each place; the lowest empty number is always the next one.
  4. Stop at the number on the card and ask, “How many ducks?” The last number you said is the answer. Then clear the raft, or write a new number.
  5. Past ten, fill the whole first raft: that is one ten. Then count on along the second raft: “eleven, twelve.” Print sheet 2 twice for twenty ducks. Above ten, you can also put down five or ten at once and say the new total, as the app’s 5 and 10 buttons do. Up to ten, count every one.
  6. The strawberries work the same way. In the app’s Berries scene, a basket holds ten, just as a raft does.
Letter or A4, portrait. Pictures print best with “background graphics” on.

1 · A raft of ten, and some more

Their First Counting · one on each place, in order

1 to 10 One raft of ten

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

11 to 20 Ten, and some more

  1. 11
  2. 12
  3. 13
  4. 14
  5. 15
  6. 16
  7. 17
  8. 18
  9. 19
  10. 20
Lines to say

“One, two, three. Three ducks!”

“Which place is next?”

“The raft is full. That’s ten!”

“A full raft, and two more. Twelve.”

2 · Counters to cut

A grown-up cuts along the dashed lines

Ten ducks

Ten strawberries

Each counter fits one place on the raft. Keep the ducks together for the next round, and print this sheet twice to count past ten.

3 · Count to

Optional · a grown-up writes the number

Count to

one lessone more

Count to

one lessone more

Write in pencil, so the number can change, like the arrows in the app. Cut the two cards apart along the dashed line.