# Ten blank labels · a story with none needed now

A pretend organiser has 10 blank labels. You can tell this tiny story without writing any labels.

1. Tell your helper, ‘None are needed now; keep them for later.’ Show which job has no labels and which has the waiting collection.
2. Point, say or sign the amount in the empty job. Is an empty job missing, or is its amount zero?
3. Change the story: ask for a label now. Direct its move out of later and into now, then describe both parts.
4. Ask the helper to point through the same ten members once. Explain how a part can be empty while the whole stays accounted for.

Point, speak, sign, use AAC or tell a helper where to put the marks. A quiet private try or pause is fine. No photo, returned homework, purchase or independent drawing/moving is needed.

<details><summary>Grown-up help</summary>

**Retained ordinary model.** 0 + 10 = 10. Give a model only when useful after the child's first thinking; it is not an independently found response.

**Director route.** Follow the child's words/signs/AAC choices faithfully; neutral reading and physical operation are different from a maths hint. Use a smaller honest actual amount or pause privately if needed. Below-ten practice cannot establish a full-ten exchange. A narrated proposed move is not an observed physical move.

[Full daily plan](../teacher/day-42.md) gives today's exact reasoning and next instruction. This is an ordinary practice model, not a reserved fresh answer. If the total is too large, choose and label a smaller actual collection while keeping the partition purpose. Adult movement follows the child's decisions. Supplied counts are support, not evidence of independently finding that count. If zero is treated as missing work, place all ten objects in one region and point to the empty region. If only one split is copied, move one object and recount both parts.

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