3 free Montessori teen board and ten board worksheets
Free printable Montessori teen board (Seguin board) worksheets: read teen numbers from the board and beads, build 11 to 19 with the unit card and beads, and count ten-bars on the ten board to 90. PDF download.
The teen board, also called the Seguin board, is how Montessori children learn the numbers 11 to 19. A wooden board shows the number 10 nine times; a card with a single digit slides over the zero to make 11, 12, 13 and so on, while a golden ten-bar and a coloured bead bar show the quantity. The ten board does the same for 20, 30, 40 up to 90. These worksheets picture the boards and beads exactly, so children can read a teen number from the board, build one themselves, and count ten-bars to read the tens.
What Students Will Practice
- Understanding a teen number as one ten and some units
- Reading the board: a 1 in the tens place and the unit card over the zero
- Matching the golden ten-bar plus a coloured bead bar to the written number
- Writing the unit card and drawing the beads for a given teen number
- Counting groups of ten-bars to read twenty, thirty, forty and beyond
Teen and ten boards are introduced around age 4½ to 5½ and support K.NBT.A.1 (compose teen numbers as ten ones and further ones) and 1.NBT.B.2 (tens and ones), the standards where teen numbers are famously difficult in English.
Ten board: count the tens
Count groups of golden ten-bars to read 20 to 90. Free printable PDF.
Teen board: build the number
Write the unit card on the board and draw the beads for each teen number. Free printable PDF.
Teen board: read the number
Seguin teen boards with a golden ten-bar and coloured unit beads; write the teen number. Free printable PDF.
How to Use These Worksheets
Print at 100% on A4 or US Letter paper. Sheet two needs a pencil for the unit card and coloured pencils for the beads if you want to keep the bead stair colours.
- Sheet one: read the number. Each item shows the board with the unit card in place, a golden ten-bar and a coloured bead bar. Say it the Montessori way: “ten and four, fourteen”, then write 14. The bead bar colour is a hint: yellow is always 4.
- Sheet two: build the number. The number is given. Write the unit digit in the dashed card on the board, then draw one line of ten beads and the right number of unit beads in the box.
- Sheet three: ten board. Count the golden ten-bars: “ten, twenty, thirty”. Write the number. Point out that the digit in front is how many bars there are, and the 0 means no extra units.
- Say the number two ways. English teen names hide the structure (“fourteen” does not sound like “ten and four”). Always say both.
- Use real beads if you have them. Lay a golden ten-bar and the coloured bar on the table before writing. If not, the pictures on the sheet stand in.
Common Mistakes to Watch For
- Writing 41 for fourteen: The child writes what they hear first. Point to the board: the 1 is already there on the left, the card goes on the right.
- Reading the board as 10 and ignoring the card: Cover the ten-bar and ask “how many extra beads?” then uncover it.
- Counting the ten-bar as one bead: Count one ten-bar bead by bead once, then agree that every ten-bar is ten.
- Confusing 13 and 30: One is one ten and three units, the other is three tens. Sheets one and three side by side make the difference visible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Montessori teen board?
Two wooden boards, together showing the number 10 nine times, with sliding cards 1 to 9 that cover the zero to make 11 to 19. Used with a golden ten-bar and the coloured bead stair bars, it shows each teen number as ten plus units. It is also called the Seguin board after Édouard Séguin.
What is the ten board?
The companion boards showing 10, 20, 30 up to 90, used with golden ten-bars. Cards 1 to 9 slide over the zero to make 21, 22 and so on, bridging from tens to any two-digit number.
What age are the teen and ten boards for?
Around 4½ to 5½, after the child knows quantities 1 to 10 with the bead stair and has met the golden ten-bar.
Why are teen numbers so hard?
English names them backwards: “fourteen” says the four before the ten, unlike “twenty-four”. The board makes the structure visible: the 1 for ten is already there, and the card adds the units.
More Montessori Maths
See all the sets on the free Montessori worksheets page. The teen board uses the bead stair colours and the golden ten-bar from the golden beads place value worksheets, and leads to the hundred board worksheets. For teen numbers in a standard format, see the double frames in our ten frame worksheets and the 11 to 20 sheets in the number tracing worksheets.
