Number Sense

Our Teen Numbers Activities are guaranteed to teach your kids the difference between Teen and Ty numbers in no time! No more confusion from those tricky teens we promise!

It’s official, the Teen numbers are Tricky for all concerned!

It can be a real headache to teach them and kids can really struggle with the difference between teen and Ty (thirTY/ thirTEEN) numbers and end up getting them totally confused. I have seen it first-hand in many a classroom, so the teen numbers, including numbers eleven and twelve, can be a real problem for your kids.

Now the thing is you may not realise that the kids are confused. Kids are clever at hiding their misunderstandings and have some great strategies that help them get the answers right but for the wrong reasons! And they’re even better at being cute and eager to please the teacher, so you wouldn’t really know if they understood until you asked them the right question. “How do you know that?”

Tips For Teaching Teen Numbers

So what’s the story with the teen numbers?  Well, the thing about teen numbers is that they are a special family of numbers. They are different because they don’t follow the usual number pattern rules like the other numbers.

Also, they are easily confused with the TY numbers when their names are said out loud. So thirteen sounds very similar to thirty!

Teen numbers are tricky and when it comes to teaching them they will drive you to bang your head on the desk. They are in a league of their own!

Here’s why they’re special and kids find them difficult. Teen numbers:

• Are the first set of two-digit numbers greater than ten that kids learn? They are also the first introduction to place value. It would be so much easier if the twenty numbers were first!
• They have their own name, ‘teen’ and don’t follow the Ty naming conventions like other two-digit numbers. E.g. Twenty, Thirty, Forty etc
• To make things even more tricky there are eleven and twelve!!! 

Oh my, no wonder things are really confusing for the kids! 

How Do You Teach Teen Numbers?

My number one tip is to make sure you talk about the fact that everyone thinks teen numbers are tricky to learn.

Talk with your kiddos about how people get confused between these numbers and that it ok to be confused.  Talk with them about a strategy to help with their confusion. And that just bumbling along is not an option. Give them some words or a series of steps to follow if they are unsure and need to seek clarification.

In my role as a numeracy coach, I have been privileged to work alongside some excellent practitioners.  During one of these shoulder-to-shoulder coaching sessions we once spent a whole lesson purposefully mumbling the numbers to the kids in an effort to teach them to ask the teacher to repeat what they said, instead of just nodding along. True Story!

It took a while before the kids realised that it was ok to ask the teacher to say something again!!!  This also paid off in on-entry testing, where our kids all asked for clarification during the tests which skyrocketed our results! Another True Story! You should try it

Once it’s out in the open that teen numbers are tricky use lots of modelling and the ‘think aloud’ strategy whenever they come up in discussion. Using a think aloud you can verbalise what you do in your head to deal with the confusion. This teaches the kids how to think and deal with the same issues!

But the BEST teaching hack EVER, when it comes to teens is to teach them that a teen number is really a ten and some more!

So thirteen would be ten and three more, fourteen would be ten and four more and so on! Try it with your kiddos. 

With these basic understandings then all you need is LOTS of practice. So here are some fabulous teen number games, printables and math centre activities for you to download.

Click here to see all our number activities 0-20