Number Sense: Make it Real!
posted by Dr. Bilge Cerezci
Young children are motivated to explore mathematical concepts they encounter in their everyday interactions with the world. Through these interactions, they develop a range of informal understanding of numbers including ideas of more or less and one-to-one correspondence. For example, a child as young as two knows if she gets more or less crackers than her friend next to her. She also exhibits her basic understanding of one-to-one correspondence when she insists on getting a cookie because her brother had one and she had none. Such intuitive understandings of number sense may help lay the groundwork for later understandings of numerical equivalence and operations, such as addition and subtraction. While serving as important building blocks, such understanding does not necessarily help young children explicitly examine and interpret their experiences in mathematical forms. So, how do we help young children make connections from these informal knowledge around numbers to a deeper, more concrete understanding of numbers?
Helping children recognize math in the real world and finding everyday math activities at home is a great way for parents to reinforce young children’s developing number sense. For example, when you are setting your table for breakfast, ask your child to join you. You can ask them how many plates do you need to set the table or whether you have enough eggs for everyone or not. While they are taking the plates from the cabinet, encourage them to count. When young children practice counting, they’re also learning one-to-one correspondence. A child that understands one-to-one correspondence knows that 4 plates equals 4 or that 5 eggs equals 5. To help them practice this concept, give your children large groups of objects to count. For example, you are making a strawberry cake for dessert and you only need 10 strawberries. You may ask your child to help you figure out whether you have enough strawberries or not. As they are practicing this skill, children may count some of the strawberries twice and/or skip counting some of them. Therefore, it is important to closely observe your child as she is counting. When she is double-counting some of the strawberries, does she realize what she has done? Does she self-correct? In such instances, resist the temptation of correcting them. Instead, ask her to double-check her answer and give them enough time to check their work and self-correct their mistakes. If she is struggling, provide them with some strategies she can use(e.g., moving strawberries to a different pile as she counts).
Taking this kind of approach not only allows children to see math as fun, but also helps them see numbers as useful tools that they can use to make sense of the world around them. While doing these kinds of activities, the most important thing you can do is to help your child see math is something that makes sense and it is practical and enjoyable. This will help your youngsters to build a strong understanding of math and develop a love of learning math that will last a lifetime.
I agree that children can learn so much about numbers, counting, and predicting in everyday life….such as helping to cook
Measuring cups and counting ingredients are great ways to involve children in math concepts.
I agree that children learn so much about math in everyday activities in the classroom and at home.
Yes my kiddos love to count our soft colorful blocks to see how high they can build. My toddlers have learned to count to 10 by playing “hide and seek”!
I totally agree as well the children in my care always want to look out of the window to count the cars and trucks they see
My students love to go on walks and count the trees and birds.
Kids love going outside and counting on walks.
My children like to count a variety of things and it keep things interesting for them. Learning one-to-one correspondence, and learning using objects such as counters, leaves, crayons; these objects also help connect them to numbers in more concrete terms. They use food also to add to what they have on their plates, and subtract.
Yes i have my children to set the table at breakfast and lunch. During art i let them count out and set paper with crayons out. You can even allow them to help with cooking and setting out snacks. It is fun for them.
We count all day in our classroom-we count the days of the month, the number of teachers, children, the number of rainy,sunny, etc. days on our weather graph…
We also count whenever we have to wait for anything, such as a friend getting a show and tell item from a backpack, or another class to pass before we go out of the door. The children love it and ask “can we count?” anytime there’s the slightest delay.
we do surveys in our classroom.. this year will probably be pets how many have a cat how many have a dog etc then compare
We count everything.
The cars at the stop light, the children at the library for storytime, the snacks even the parents that have come and the children they are left.
I love the idea of number sense and how to teach a child the ways of making sense of numbers through a variety of activities
My children love to go on walks and count, are count buses on the way to school.
I currently have my preschoolers set the tables at meal time. I will begin to use this as a counting activity with predictions as well. Great ideas!
I have 2 daughters,4 and 5 years old. I love observing their level of understanding numbers. My younger daughter learns a lot from her older sister and I can observe her making the connections and making sense of numbers.
Yes I agree
Children also enjoy counting animals in a story or counting how many trees they see on a page as we read a story
I always see kids comparing their snack to their peers in numbers
During conferences, me and my coworkers are asked all the time how parents can help their child with math and make it fun. We always encourage them to have their child count things while they are running errands, such as counting 5 apples to purchase. This makes math fun and the student does not realize they are even doing math outside of a school setting.
I like your idea!I could use that in my future interactions with parents.
I completely agree! Not only is making it real making it relatable its making math fun!! Helping with lists, counting cars, how many ducks or geese did you see….
I totally agree
It’s easy to work math into everyday life. With my own boys, I would ask them to count cars as we drove down the road or to sort the legos by colors and then count how many there were.
I agree with this examples. When I serve snacks to children, I encourage them to count the cookies for each one.
Yes! So helpful!
MY kids and I count all different things throughout the day; Stairs, food, stoplights, etc.
The children in our class love to count everything all the time! When they are playing with the dinosaurs, I see the children counting to compare how many they each have. Our class “counter” counts the children in line to see how many we have in line. We count on the calendar to see what date it is. Numbers are everywhere and the kids love seeing it!
I love being able to make numbers real in the children’s everyday life. So many times we count things or talk about the day of the week and the children do not even know their learning. This makes it easy for us as teachers to bring things into their everyday play as math.
I strongly agree, the children in my care like to clap their hands and count to ten while they wait for snack or lunch.
I love hearing kids counting and when they are able to count to a higher number I feel so proud of them.
My students love to count plates, napkins and cups as we prepare for breakfast and lunch.
My students love to count out plates, cups and napkins when we set up for breakfast and lunch.
Working with infants and toddlers, we make sure to count everything. For example if we are sitting with the child and we are stacking blocks, we will count each block as we stack it. We also encourage the children to use the words or signs for more and all-done at meals.
This is amazing how children can better understand one to one correspondence by setting the table.
My students love to pass out the blankets at nap time. One blanket for each cot.
Routines can be so useful in teaching number sense. At snack time, I always ask the children how many of certain items they want, or tell them they can take a certain number of items, and we do this without counting to reinforce subitizing
I agree children have many opportunities to learn and practice number sense throughout their day.
I think it is interesting that we should redirect children in counting to try to count differently if they counted incorrectly rather than counting with them or telling them they are wrong. I think this is really great and beneficial to know since it will help children to learn more on their own.