Get ready to engage your learners with a hands-on way to practise teen numbers and develop early place value skills using our Teen Number Spin & Cover game.

This fun and simple game is the perfect addition to your maths rotations, helping students consolidate their understanding of how teen numbers are built using tens and ones. By incorporating a spinner and visual place value models, students will gain confidence with representing numbers from 11–19.

The interactive nature of this game makes it ideal for visual and tactile learners, with clear connections between concrete MAB models and numerical representations. Whether played independently or in pairs, this activity brings excitement and focus to a critical early maths concept.

Key Learning Outcomes

• ✅ Recognise and represent teen numbers as a group of ten and additional ones
• ✅ Develop understanding of place value concepts using MAB blocks
• ✅ Apply number facts and mental strategies for addition to ten
• ✅ Strengthen number recognition and subitising through repeated play

What’s Included

• Teen Number Spin & Cover game mat (full colour and black and white versions)
• Spinner template (with optional cut-and-assemble arrow)
• Instructions for use

Materials Needed

• Game mat printouts (colour or B&W)
• Paperclip and pencil or plastic spinner
• Counters or cover tokens
• Optional: Laminator for reusability

How to Use

1. Print and laminate the game mat for durability.
2. Give each student or pair a game mat and a spinner.
3. Students spin a number (1–9) and mentally add it to 10.
4. They find the corresponding teen number on the grid and cover it with a token.
5. The first to get 3 covered numbers in a row (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) is the winner!

Ideas for Classroom Use

• 💡 Add to your numeracy rotations for independent or partner work
• 💡 Use in intervention sessions targeting early place value misconceptions
• 💡 Print on coloured card and place in a maths centre for easy access
• 💡 Introduce during a whole class warm-up and model with a projector

Top Teacher Tips

• 💛 Laminate the mats and provide dry-erase markers for an alternative recording method
• 💛 Replace the spinner with number dice for extra variety
• 💛 Create extension challenges where students explain their answers in words or with drawings

This resource provides a playful way to build fluency with place value and gives repeated exposure to how teen numbers are structured—making it a valuable part of your early years maths toolkit.

Teen Number Spin & Cover is the perfect low-prep activity for reinforcing essential place value foundations.