Math Talk: Frames

Five and ten frames are everywhere, but my students' previous connection to them was always contrived. They used a five frame or ten frame only because I asked them to, not because it was an authentic counting tool. This year, I changed it up. Here is a math talk our team is using as a precursor to the 5/10 frame counting tool.

First, I showed this picture frame. Name this object? They said picture frame. We decided to frame our faces with our fingers as a signal for "picture frame." This is supposed to be fun! A hook to reel them in...

Next, we saw an empty five frame. I explained, "This is a row of frames, just like picture frames. Is it empty or full?" They yelled, "empty!!" Our hand signal for empty is a closed fist in front of our chests.

Then, a full five frame. I explained, "This is a full row. Show me full!" Our hand signal is an open hand, palm facing out.


We practiced the signals and saying the words echo-style. (I say, they say).

Then, quiz time! They practiced a context for frames using picture frame, empty and full hand signals in a simple Keynote presentation I made. We'll repeat tomorrow. The next steps include playing silently ("Voices Off") and using hand signals only to identify picture frame, empty five frame and full five frame and ultimately exploring what happens to the frame when it isn't quite empty and isn't quite full as with quantities of 1-4. I hope to report back on if this mini-lesson series helped contextualize this tool with my students. Let me know if you try it and it works for you! Are there any other tips or tricks that work well using this tool?

Hand signal fluency offers comprehensible input and participation using receptive language if students aren't yet ready to use expressive language (Shy kids, ELLs, kids who need lots of exposure to a concept)