What is Base 10?

Base 10 is a way we count using numbers that go from 0 to 9, just like fingers on both hands.

Imagine you have a bag of marbles. When you count them one by one, you say 1, 2, 3... up to 9. But when you get to 10, something special happens, it’s like starting a new group! You put the first marble in the tens place, and the rest go into the ones place. So 10 is really just one group of ten marbles.

Think about a number like 23:

• The 2 is in the tens place, meaning it's two groups of ten.
• The 3 is in the ones place, meaning it's three extra marbles.

It’s like having 2 full bags (each with 10 marbles) and 3 loose marbles, all together, that makes 23 marbles!

We use Base 10 because we have 10 fingers, and it feels natural to count on them. So every time you add a new group of ten, you're just making the counting easier, like grouping toys or cookies into piles of ten!