Meet the fun and friendly number characters of Team Ten! You will get to know zero through nine and their different personalities based on historical and cultural usage from around the world.

2. Meet Team Ten!

3. I’m Zero the Hero! Though I am the baby
number, I keep the team together as the
team leader. In the history of math, my
discovery allowed the other numbers to
become more powerful by expressing
values greater than 9. I love all things
oval, including the Milky Way, and my
favorite spot is the location where the
Prime Meridian crosses the Equator. I will
be a manager and team leader.
I like the Mayan numbering system since it
included a zero, and I can also tell you
about how the Brahmi system traveled to
Europe by the Arabs to create the base 10
system used worldwide today.
Zero

5. I’m number 1! I’m a bit boastful, but also
lonely at times. I feel like I come from
Mespotamia, where the Babylonians
recorded the first written numbering
system using clay tablets and a stylus.
Today you can use your finger as the stylus
on the electronic tablet!
I love tall skinny buildings – you may guess
why! My favorite animal is the Arctic
narwhal with its single long tusk. I like the
shape of an egg with one point and one
yolk. My goal is to be a politician, surgeon
or trial attorney. Sometimes the rest of
the team has to tell me not to always run
to the front of the line, since I love to be
first!
One

7. 1 wants to teach you about
writing technology over the centuries:
Ancient tablet and stylus…

8. …modern tablet and stylus.
1 wants to teach you about
writing technology over the centuries:

9. I’m number 2! I enjoy everything that
comes in pairs, like camels with two
humps. Since Rome was founded by the
twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, I like
to talk about Roman numerals.
I identify with the heart shape, with its
two sides, and also because I am the
empathetic member of the team. I will be
a teacher or nurse when I grow up.
Two

11. I’m number 3! I add stability to the
team like triangles do to buildings.
I love to talk about the Great
Pyramids of Giza, the oldest
standing structures created by
humans. My favorite animal is the
3-toed sloth from South America. I
like the Three Blind Mice, Three
Musketeers, and the three witches
of Macbeth.
I play the musical triangle. Since
triangles are the “sacred shape” of
architecture, I aspire to be a builder
or architect.
Three

13. I’m number 4 – the team geek and proud
of it! Because of my glasses with four sides
(did you notice?), some folks call me
“four-eyes.” I love the painter
Mondrian, since his paintings include lots
of rectangles and squares. I never get lost
because I know the four directions.
With four the sacred number of the
Navajo Nation, I like to tell the story of the
Navajo Code Talkers. I will be an
engineer, physicist, mathematician, or
cartographer. A four fun fact: The four-
color theorem proves that all maps can be
colored with only 4 colors.
Four

15. I’m proud to be number 5! I love
everything military, especially the US
Pentagon and all 5-star generals. I also
hang out with firemen to assist in opening
pentagon-shaped fire hydrants, and I use
my 5 senses wherever I go. I like the logo
of the Olympics because of its 5
interlocking rings.
I enjoy tallying since it uses 5 marks--4
dashes and a 5th cross hatch mark--as well
as the Asian calculator based on 5’s, called
an abacus. I like to visit Angkor Wat since
it includes 5 center spires, a design known
as a quincunx. My 5-fingered hand sends
you “High five!”
Five

17. I’m number 6! I love crystals and hexagon-
shaped items: snowflakes, bee hives, and
lots of floor tiles! I look forward to being a
scientist and like to talk about Antarctica
due to its ice cover as the “frozen
continent.” I love chemical formulae with
hexagons and remind all that Carbon is the
6th element of the Periodic Table of the
Elements.
I also like to compose music with my
hexagon-shaped pencil and then play it on
my 6-stringed guitar. I raise bees and love
to hunt for bugs with their 6 legs.
Six

19. I’m number 7 – the team rogue from the
Seven Seas! I wear a mustache and sail
the seven seas looking for the Seven
Ancient Wonders of the World. I like that
there are seven days of the week and that
rainbows have seven colors. Did you know
that the Statue of Liberty has 7 rays on her
crown to represent the seven seas and/or
the seven continents?
I am the lucky number of the western
world, as the most likely amount when a
pair of dice is rolled. I like to recite the
Seven Stages of Man sonnet by
Shakespeare. When I grow up I will be a
real estate developer or entrepreneur as I
like to take risks.
Seven

21. I’m number 8! Since I’m the lucky number
of China, I love everything Chinese –
especially the Beijing Olympics which
started on 8/8/08 at 8:08:08 in the
evening. My favorite animal is the
octopus. I love stop signs since they are
red octagons in shape and octagonal
houses built in the USA and Canada during
the 1850’s.
Sometimes I scare people with 8-legged
spiders! I will be an international trader as
I love global business.
Eight

23. I’m number 9! You know me as the team
fashionista as I am “dressed to the nines.”
I go “the whole 9 yards” and love cats with
their 9 lives. My favorite sport is baseball
with its 9 innings and team of 9 players. I
like visiting the Kowloon area of Hong
Kong as it means “9 dragons” in Chinese.
I like to discuss the Quipu knot-based
numbering system of the Incas since it
looks like jewelry. I aspire to be a fashion
designer or model, or lead a TV reality
show.
Nine

25. Number Links: Animals
0- glass lizard
1- narwhal
2- camel
3- three-toed sloth
4- kitten
5- starfish
6- bee in honeycomb
7- ladybug
8- octopus
9- nine-spotted moth

26. Number Links: Musical Instruments
0- drum (North America)
1- ektara (India)
2- ehru (China)
3- balalaika (Russia)
4- ukelele (Hawaii)
5- banjo (orig. Africa)
6- guitar (Spain)
7- guqin (China)
8- mandolin (Italy)
9- kelstone (Belgium)

27. Number Links: Shapes

28. Number Links: Dominos

29. Number Links: Sign Language

30. World Numbers Poster

31. World Numbers Poster: List of Rim Languages
(clockwise from top left)
Slovenian, Albanian, Belarussian, Tajik, Latvian, Czec
h, Danish, Dutch &
Flemish, Zulu, Macedonian, Filipino, Yiddish, Latin, L
ithuanian, Hmong, Telugu, Serbian, Norwegian, Hun
garian, Haitian
Creole, Romanian, Kurdish, Estonian, Hawaiian, Guj
arati, Ukrainian, Afrikaans, Galician, Persian/Farsi/D
ari, Uzbek, Turkmen, Georgian, Armenian, Kikuyu, S
amoan, Kazakh.

32. Kids love their number friends!

36. Jasper Johns, Zero To Nine,
1958-1959