Bundle Bot — Make a Ten from Ten Ones

About this activity

Bundle Bot is a little robot who loves tidying loose ones into neat tens, and he needs the child's help: to build a number like 23, 34, or 45, the child drops in loose ones, and the moment there are exactly ten, they pull the lever to clunk those ten ones into one neat ten. Numbers run up to forty-nine. It's a free Grade 1 place-value activity that plays in the browser with no account.

The lever only works on exactly ten, which is what teaches the rule that ten ones make one ten. Some rounds turn it around — unbundling 32 into 2 tens and 12 ones — and others set a trap, like an impostor pile of nine ones that is not ready to bundle, or an overfill the child must catch. Across all of them the child is physically grouping by ten, the concrete meaning behind the tens digit of every two-digit number.

It is aligned to Common Core 1.NBT.B.2.a — understanding that a bundle of ten ones is called a ten. No timer, no score — just calm, playful practice.

What's inside this activity

• Designed for Grade 1 learners (ages about 6–7)
• Common Core strand: Number & Operations in Base Ten
• Aligned to Common Core standard 1.NBT.B.2.a

How to play

Read Bundle Bot's target number and add loose ones into the machine.

When there are exactly ten loose ones, pull the lever to bundle them into one neat ten, and keep going until the number is built.

Not quite? Try again as many times as you like — there is no timer and no score.

What your child practices

• Counting loose ones and knowing when there are exactly ten
• Bundling ten ones into one ten, and unbundling a ten back into ten ones
• Building two-digit numbers up to forty-nine from tens and ones
• Catching an impostor pile of nine that is not ready to bundle

Learning goals

Understand that ten ones make one ten — the focus of Common Core 1.NBT.B.2.a.

Bundle and unbundle tens to build and take apart two-digit numbers.

Build the grouping-by-ten foundation that place value and regrouping depend on.