# Day 10 — Use the number toolkit

**25 minutes · AC9MFN01 and AC9MFN03 (0–10, partial), AC9MFN02 (1–5), early AC9MFN04 connection · educator review pending**

**Success today:** A child chooses a useful strategy to make, read, order and compare small collections in a new everyday situation, then explains or demonstrates a choice.

**Prepare:** Cards 0–10; two ten-frames; 20 large counters; paper “orders” with 0–10 printed or spoken; observation sheet. Give no child a real name or score on public display.

1. **Reconnect, 3 min.** Show a four-dot card briefly. Ask, “How many did you see? What helped?” Then show an empty tray and ask for its numeral.
2. **Model, 4 min.** Set up a make-believe community tool library. An order asks for seven tools. Fill five places and two more, count to confirm, then show card 7. Compare a second order for nine: “Nine is more than seven. I can see two extra after pairing.”
3. **Play: choose the station, 11 min.** In pairs, children choose a scene: tool library, parcel desk, animal shelter, community garden or sports kit. One draws an order card 0–10. The other builds the order; then they draw a second card and compare both orders. Ask at least once for a 1–5 dot card to be recognised without counting. Swap roles. The adult circulates and records independent strategy, not the scene chosen.
4. **Independent try, 4 min.** Offer one fresh card 6–10 and one fresh card 0–5. Ask the child to make each, select its numeral if it was spoken, and say which is more. A child who is not yet secure with 6–10 uses two cards within 0–5 with the same reasoning goal.
5. **Check and close, 3 min.** Ask, “What did you do when you were unsure?” Accept recounting, pairing, checking a frame or finding a number on the path. Explain that the short check in [assessment.md](assessment.md) helps the teacher plan what comes next; it can be gathered during station work.

**If a child copies a partner’s answer without showing the amount:** Give a private one-to-one check with different cards. If they seem fluent in a familiar frame but not in a loose collection, rebuild the same total in a new layout.

**Access routes:** Every scene can be enacted with tactile objects, a bold paper frame, a spoken order, a card, a drawing, AAC or partner placement directed by the child. Offer quiet individual work instead of partner play when it gives a clearer demonstration. Do not score handwriting, speaking fluency or speed as number knowledge.

**Record:** strategy chosen without prompting; count/quantity/numeral match; comparison reason; 1–5 recognition route. Follow with [assessment.md](assessment.md).