Base Ten Number Stories

The author has used her own stories to share the foundations of our ‘Base Ten’ number system. When presenting these stories the author has used mime and signing. She also introduced her own way of signing numbers. She also uses this hand signing to help scaffold the stages of learning between counting as a practical hands on experience and abstract aspects of numeracy associated with written numbers and place value.

The number signing is presented as individual fingers for the units and an appropriate number of claps for the tens. (Ten fingers coming together representing one clap for each ten). A hundred is represented by clasped hands with alternate fingers intertwined. [The clasped hands have caught ten claps. Each finger within the clasped hand position can be raised in turn as the tens numbers are counted 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. This activity has a strong link with brain neurology and those that can raise each of the individual fingers of each hand alternately while counting in tens will gain co-ordinate independent finger control and improve integration within the brain.]

Number stories that relate to ten or more can be illustrated using ten sized egg boxes and baskets. Each of the counted items in the story can be placed one each into the individual egg sections of a ten size egg box. When the box is full the ten items are then tipped into a basket and the egg box can be used again. Thus if the story was about collecting/counting crab apples then two used baskets and three more in the egg box can easily be totalled as 23 crab apples. If the specified items in the story are not available as real props then large buttons or beads, or whatever else, can be placed in the egg box and tipped into the baskets as the numeracy aspect of the story expands.

If the story is told in a natural outdoor environment a suitable collection of sticks and stones can be collected by the listeners prior to the interactive story time.Similarly the ‘Eastwood Symbol Maths’ can be introduced as a finger painting activity inspired by a number story. Later the numerical aspects of a ‘number story’ can be recorded as drawn ‘Eastwood Symbol Maths signs.

These stories to date have been only told and therefore the language and presentation has been adapted to suit each individual occasion. The first story introduces the setting and is written here in some detail.  The following stories in the series are only outlined in brief.

A Small Train for a Small Town

There was once a small town where all the people were very happy and very friendly, but this town was deep in the mountains and not easy to get to by road. The young people who were born and grew up in the town usually left to go to the universities and get well paid jobs in the cities. For this reason many of people who lived in this town were either very young or very old. If someone wanted to go to the library or the market or to the doctor or to visit a friend they would have to either walk or cycle or take a horse and cart or even a wheelbarrow. This was very difficult for the elderly and those caring for young children.

A man called Clive lived in the town; Clive was very good at fixing things he could fix almost everything; Clive also made many things using scrap metal and odd pieces of wood or broken cupboards. He made a machine to thresh the corn and a mill to grind the flour. He made a machine to separate the dirt from the potatoes and he made a new set of bellows for the church organ. One day Clive decided to start on a very special project – he wanted to make a small train that could take his friends around the town at a very safe gentle speed. Clive worked very hard and he was busy on the project for three whole months. At last he completed his plan and there was a special opening ceremony for the towns new little passenger train. The train was very small, the miniature engine was just big enough for Clive to sit on and drive. This train did not need a railway track it had wheels that could take it along the lanes and small paths. It had three carriages with ten small seats in each carriage and a small carriage that was like a giant box to carry luggage and other goods. The train had two different jobs to do, in the morning the train was called The ‘GoingOut’ Train, and in the afternoon it was called The ‘Going Home’ Train. This made it easy for everyone to go out and come back from the different places they wanted to visit.

(Now the story relates a specific day and who, where and when, different people get on and off the train. The villagers knew that they had to fill up the carriages one at a time for the front to the back because this helped the little train to stay balanced when it went around a bend and this helped the little train stop and start more smoothly. A model train or a giant train picture can be used to illustrate the story of the trains ‘Going Out’ journey, and then again when it does it’sGoing Home journey. Model passengers can be placed in the carriages. Listeners can become participants in creation of the imaginary train journey. Where the train stops to collect passengers and where it takes them to create an ongoing and interesting number story. If a toy train is used this number game can include making areas that represent the different stopping places, e.g. a picnic area in the woods, the vegetable market, the pet shop, the library, the village hall for Mary-Ann’s 90^th birthday party, the farmer who sells goats milk, etc. Because the train has ten seats in each carriage the number of passengers can be easily seen and the story can be recorded as numbers: Nancy and her two children, then Mr. and Mrs Jones, then the kindergarten teacher and five of the kinder-garden children equals one full carriage etc……[3 +  2 +1 + 4 = 10] When passengers get off the number story presents subtraction.

As an active story using a toy train travelling around an improvised number of stops this story can become a practical and imaginative activity that illustrates basics of addition and subtraction. The active story can be recorded as pictures and number symbols or just numbers recorded on a graph style of chart. Similarly if the story is told in the traditional storytelling style, listeners can record the passengers getting on and off the train in symbolic pictures of stick people or the symbol number signs shown above or traditional numbers. As a listening only story the listeners can be asked to help the train driver of the Going Home Train to remember to collect all the passengers who were taken out to different places on the Going Out Train journey. The afternoon Train story requires the listeners remember, or relate to their picture notes in order to recall who went where, so that no one is left behind on the Going Home journey.

This story can easily be supported by props using a model/toy train and toy people. It can be also be supported by the same hand signing system described in the previous story and/or recorded using the more concrete use of sticks and stones or wooden base ten number blocks.

The ten times Table

Ten sheep in the pen,
When it is Twenty this field is empty.
Now it is Thirty and my boots are very dirty.
Forty sheep can be very naughty.
Fifty, and the dogs’ eyes are very shifty.
Sixty, too many for our old dog dixy.
Seventy sheep is more than plenty.
Eighty makes me feel high and mighty
Ninety makes the dogs quite flighty
One hundred is far too many sheep to be fed.
And I am so tired I must go to bed and lay down my sleepy head.
Counting sheep will help me sleep 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100
Sleep tight and good night.

Number Story Rhymes

• Ten little Indians sitting down to dine 

One had tummy ache so then there was a nine
Nine little Indians eat at such a rate one couldn’t move at all
So then there were eight
Eight little Indians build themselves a house
One little Indian was frightened by a mouse
One little Indian got in such a fix
Caught in a bramble bush so then there were six.
Six little Indians worked the whole day through
One rolled up in the carpet disappeared from view.
One little Indian nailing down the floor nailed down his piny too
So then there were four
Four little Indians busy chopping wood
One sawed his perch away that didn’t do him any good.
One little Indian didn’t know what to do
So hid in the garden, this left only two.
Two little Indians working in the sun one got sunstroke so that left only one
One little Indian acting as the nurse made sure that nobody was getting any worse, nine little Indians in nine little beds, nine little pillow slips for nine little heads.

John-Paul and his Sheep

There once lived a quiet and gentle man who lived on the edge of a small village in the foothills of the Welsh mountains. This man did have any family living with him because he came from another country far across the seas.  His name was John-Paul and although he could not speak in the same language as the villagers everyone liked him and exchanged smiles and nods of friendship when they met in the fields, the woods or on the village streets. John-Paul loved his garden and he grew many wonderful vegetables and lots of beautiful flowers. The village folk would often come to collect some of his flowers and vegetables and in exchange they gave him lovely homemade food – pies, biscuits, cakes, honey and jam.

One day there was a lot of drama in the village. As the villagers gathered together they discussed their concern and what they could or should do to help a badly injured sheep that was laying quiet still on the village green. Whilst the villagers were talking, a boy who often spent his time helping John-Paul, ran to find John in his garden and there he loudly called out to him in earnest. When he saw John, Robert beckoned John to come very quickly.   When they reached the village green John looked kindly at the poor sheep and then went home to get a blanket. When he arrived back at the green he carefully rolled the sheep over onto the blanket and then wrapped it up firmly so that it would not feel scared or struggleto get free. The sheep remained very quiet and together John and Robert and a little girl called Arwen carried the sheep safely back to John’s home and carefully placed her on some straw at the back of John’s shed.

John treated the sheep’s wounds with herbs and much loving care and some weeks later she could stand and walk a little, so John built a run outside the shed were she could be out in the sunshine during the day. Many of the villagers would stop to say hello to the sheep that John named Lucky, and they often brought special foods for her to eat. Soon Lucky the sheep was well enough to go back out on the mountains so John and Robert often took her out across the mountains to feed on the grasses and nourishing plants. John always thought that she would soon feel well enough to live out on the mountain again with the other sheep, but whenever he tried to sneak off home on his own, Lucky would immediately run after him. She then stayed very close by his side as they walked together back to their home.

So the days went on very happily for John and Robert and Lucky who was by now getting very fat.

Then one day Lucky did not get up out of her bed in the morning and so John did not go walking with Lucky over the mountains that day or even the next. Just as John was beginning to feel a bit worried a most wonderful thing happened John went to see Lucky, she had a wonderful newly born lamb. She was busy washing and licking the lamb which made very soft and sweet little noises. John was very happy and he went off to find Robert and Arwen to tell them the wonderful news. Robert and Arwen were very excited about going to see the new born lamb and they all rushed back to Lucky’s shed.   They entered very quietly and slowly and to their surprise the family had now grown to three, Lucky and her twin lambs. Now when John walked back through the village he told everyone his special news, well Luck’s special news and during the days that followed many villagers took the time to bring Lucky some food.   It was not long before the lambs were big enough to go out on the mountain to play whilst Lucky grazed hungrily on the spring grass.

The days went by and everyone was happy and John even used to take some of the milk for Lucky for himself and the village children to dink. Lucky seemed to like john milking her each morning before they went off over the mountains.

Then one day when the summer weather was warming the mountains Lucky went off with her lambs and for the very first time she did not follow John home. John felt she was happy to stay on the mountain now she had her lambs to keep her company, so he went quickly home wondering how it would be without Lucky living there too. The next day all seemed very quiet for John and he did not need to go walking over the mountains. So he worked hard in his garden. After a long day of hard work John was tired and glad to go indoors to get some supper, but just as he was going in he heard some sheep calling and he wondered if Lucky was happy and doing well living on the mountain with her lambs. Something about the sheep calling made him feel uneasy and he waited for a while watching over the mountains as the sun was setting. Then he noticed that the three sheep who were making a lot of noise, were walking directly towards him. John soon recognised who it was and he quickly opened the gate so that they could come in and rest in their own shed. They never stayed out on the mountains again on their own and life for everyone continued as usual except that there was no more milk from Lucky now the lambs were quite grown up. John made a big yard outside the shed now there were three sheep and every morning they went off over the mountains and every evening they all came home to sleep in their lovely warm shed.

Part two describes how the following spring Lucky and her lambs (Who are named by the listeners) all have lambs of their own. Lucky has triplets and each of the daughters has twins. When John tells the villagers he has ten sheep he shows his ten fingers and then claps his hands together to sign all the fingers together as one ten.

Throughout the rest of this story [Number signing is presented as appropriate claps for the tens and individual fingers for the units. A hundred is represented by a jump or another suitable action chosen by the story teller or the listeners. Whenever possible mime, signing and accompanying props are used instead of or alongside the verbal storytelling. All the listeners are encouraged to improvise or imitated the storyteller’s use of hand movements to sign all the references to numerical values throughout the story.]

The villages spin the wool and dye it into different colour then the man who has the wool shop in the town comes in his van and collects the …(?number) balls of red wool and the …….balls of green wool etc [ now the listeners are not only invited to sign the numbers but also the different colours as the story is now signed with the aid of a few props rather than told verbally.] One of the local farmers gives John a male orphan lamb and it soon grows big enough to father the future lambs.

When John milks his sheep he gets ….so many…. jugs of milk and gets given………..

When John sheers his sheep he gets …..so many…sacks of wool for which he gets for example 3 jars of honey, 25 biscuits, a new knitted winter hat and scarf etc.

The final part of the story tells how Robert now …?..years of age, gets older and starts his first job. How many hours he works what pay he gets at the end of the week and how many days holiday each year may be included in the story. Later Robert now aged…?.. gets engaged to Arwen and when he is …?..andArwen is …?… years old they get married. As a marriage gift  John-Paul gives them …?…so many of his sheep which leaves John with …?…at his home and everyday John and/or Arwen take all … ?…of the sheep together up onto the mountains (or the woods) for some extra sweet grass. The sheep have lambs and continue to produce milk, wool and lambs!…….

Number-Story Rhymes

These rhymes can be accompanied with appropriate props and action, e.g. using a potted tree, a nest, an egg box, hard boiled chicken eggs and wooden beads for the Wren’s eggs.

• There once was a happy hen, and wise was she.

Three eggs she laid, hidden under a tree.
Once every day she continued to lay;
one on Sunday, one Monday and one Tuesday.
The sunny days went by
and her eggs did multiply.
Today when I looked the clutch was many more,
Happy Hen had laid another four.
Now our happy magic hen
has laid one whole box of ten.

[The author illustrates this poem using a potted tree with a circle of dried grass underneath for the hen’s nest. Then one person acts as the hen and places the eggs (as directed by the poem) into the nest. At the end someone collects the eggs and places them in a ten size egg box.]

Similarly the following poems can be acted out with appropriate props and thereby add a deeper understanding of the numerical concepts integrate into the story presented by the poem.

One rabbit greets the break of day. 
Two rabbits say it’s time to play…
Three rabbits hop in the hay.
Four rabbits say let’s stay…
Five rabbits say let’s run away.
Six rabbits say let’s not delay.
Seven rabbits say the sky is grey.
Eight rabbits go without delay.
Nine rabbits know their way.
Ten rabbits say it’s the end of our day.

Six eggs in a nest
The small wee Wren had really done her best,
But one egg fell out how many had she then.
Sadly another was left out in the cold and
Removed from the nest no more to behold.
Of all those left one never hatched.
This one was also tipped out of the batch.
Soon happy chicks did chatter and chirp
While the proud parents did all of the work.
The baby birds grew bigger and bigger,
Fatter and featherier.
Until one day the nest was too small
So the fledglings flew off to sit on the wall.

Six smooth eggs sitting in a box
Five were brown and one was white.
Four were big and two were small,
Three were short and three were tall.
One fell and cracked upon the floor,
So ask the chickens to lay one more.
Two were boiled for our tea
One for you and one for me.
So now how many can you see.

See Also