Today is rung 3 of 6 on this topic
Reading and writing numerals to 20
Can do: Sees 14 and says fourteen, hears seventeen and writes 17.
Why it matters
Teen numbers are the most reversed writing in early maths, because English says the ones digit first — "four-teen" — and a child writes what they hear.
What it looks like when it's wobbly
Writes 41 for fourteen, or reads 13 as thirty.
⏱️ Two-minute check
Say twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty. "Write them."
Solid looks like: All four, digits in the right order.
The full activity for this topic · 5 minutes
Teen Numbers Are Backwards
- 1Build 14 as one group of ten plus four singles. Physically separate the ten.
- 2Say it their way first: "one ten and four ones — that's fourteen."
- 3Name the trap out loud: "Fourteen says four first, but we write the ten first. It's a trick."
- 4Write it while saying "ten first, then four."
- 5Do a mixed dictation of five numbers and let them self-check against the objects.
If it's too hard
Give them written numbers to point at rather than to write.
If it's too easy
Go past 20 and up to 50, where the pattern becomes honest again.
Say this
"Teen numbers are sneaky — they say the small number first but we write the ten first."