Lead EYFS teacher, at Ghyllgrove Community Primary School, Keeleigh McKeon explains why Ten Town gets children excited about numbers…
It helps children’s understanding
One of the reasons it has really worked in our school is that Ten Town isn’t just about learning number formation and early counting, it has also developed the children’s understanding of number value and how to apply their knowledge in practical situations.
The 10 to 20 activities have also given them a foundation in shape, space and measure.
Not only has Ten Town worked as a focus for maths but it has become an integral part of our continuous provision and planning, from making King One’s crown in art to discussing Fiona Five’s ideas for healthy eating.
It’s now part of our daily routine
We introduced Ten Town to our school because we’d noticed our children really struggled with number formation.
Ten Town stood out as a perfect resource thanks to its useful rhymes that help children remember how to write each number and the colourful animated stories and catchy songs really caught their imagination.
Initially, Ten Town was a resource that we could dip into when we needed it, but as the year has progressed it has become an important part of our daily routine.
We can pick and choose songs and stories based on the theme of the week or we can follow the adventures of King One and his friends from start to finish.
There are lots of activity ideas
Our children love Ten Town! They sing along with the songs, join in with the actions and respond really well to the characters.
It’s great to see them so enthusiastic and interested in maths. There are lots of ideas for activities such as role-play, problem solving and opportunities for communication.
For example, the character tabards allow us to create physical representations of number problems and the fantastic outdoor resources have enabled us to extend the learning into our new Early Years garden.
It can be accessed at home
As well as becoming a well-used and valuable resource in school, we also arranged home access.
Parents have commented on how well their children have engaged with Ten Town and that the activities have supported their weekly homework. They also like the insight into how their children are taught early numeracy skills.
During lockdown, Ten Town proved to be an invaluable resource that parents could easily use with their children and it was a great way to support learning at home as it provided continuity and familiarity to what we do in school.
Ten Town has developed a new learning platform and web app with exciting number-based stories, songs and games. It encourages learning through play with 100s of ideas for practical activities. Memorable characters help integrate maths throughout the day with many cross curricular opportunities. It introduces numbers to 20 with focus on partitioning and links to space, shape and measure.
For more information visit tentown.co.uk, email info@tentown.co.uk or call 0345 474 1232.
