“Fingers, fingers, 1-2-3…how many fingers do you see?”  

We are playing one of our favorite finger games. I hide one hand behind my back. When I bring it forward, I hold up some fingers and the children shout out the number of fingers that they see.

“Three!” shout the friends playing the game.

Finger games can be played anywhere at any time because our fingers are always, well…handy! Besides, there’s a lot of math to be learned in those little fingers. Fostering a love of math in children begins with building a basic understanding of numbers.

I watch as two-year-old Jade repeatedly looks at his fingers and then back at mine as he attempts to duplicate my patterns. Children learn through their senses, and Jade is visually and physically working his way through an early math skill. He is also engaging in a sensory-motor experience that helps build abstract thinking skills.

When children engage in finger play, sing counting songs and play counting games, they are building a strong number sense. Number sense is a person’s ability to understand key math concepts such as quantities and the numbers that represent those quantities, as well as concepts such as more or less. Children with good number sense can think flexibly and fluently about numbers.

While using his fingers, Jade can feel and see the difference between the numbers 2 and 4. This developmentally appropriate math game is helping Jade connect a quantity to its numeric name—and his vocabulary is growing as he chants along with the rhyme.

Compelling new studies are also revealing how hands literally “help the brain think.” According to the website Science Translated—which educates students and the public about ongoing scientific research in a simple, jargon-free way—”Children clearly ‘think’ with their hands while learning to count.”

Neuroscientists and educators agree: Children who learn to use their fingers as a mathematical tool in the early years experience more success in math than those who don’t.

When children use their fingers to count, they are strengthening their number knowledge and their ability to visualize numbers in their minds. Counting is more complex than simply memorizing and reciting number words. Children need to understand the counting sequence, as well as one-to-one correspondence, cardinality and subitizing.

• Counting sequence: Counting involves using the same sequence each time, starting with one.
• One-to-One Correspondence: Exactly one number from the counting sequence is assigned to each object in the collection.
• Cardinality: The last number assigned to an object when counting the collection indicates the total quantity of objects in the collection.
• Subitizing: The ability to recognize a small group of objects without counting.

Watching and listening to children’s counting will help you see what they know and what they still need to learn. Once the children have a strong understanding of the numbers up to five, try adding your other hand to the game. For example, I show two fingers on my right hand and three fingers on my left hand. The children have to add the two sets of numbers to give me a total number.

“1- 2-3, let me see…the number two!”

We also use our fingers to play with shadows. Using the sun as a light source, I call out a number. The children then hold up the appropriate number of fingers to represent that number, casting “finger shadows” on a wall or on the sidewalk. 

This is a great way to help children build their number sense. It allows the children to work on:

• Finger-isolation activities such as pointing with the index finger, counting out the fingers on their hands or wiggling all of their fingers individually
• Thumb-opposition activities such as touching the thumb to each finger to build strength and dexterity for pencil-holding and cutting with scissors

These are all good reasons to add some finger play to your days! Keep it fun, keep it spontaneous and keep it simple. What looks like child’s play will help build a strong foundation for later math learning. You can count on that!

“Can we play with those counting things today?”

Two bubbly three-year-olds are standing in front of me with expectant smiles on their faces. I have absolutely no idea what they talking about—or what’s going on in those busy little brains, which I can almost hear whirring with activity.

“What counting things are you looking for?” I ask.

“Those pieces of wood with the holes,” responds Hissham.  “But they aren’t holes, really. They’re like circles….”  He trails off, hoping that I’ll know what he means.

“And we want the buttons!” Mariana chimes in.

Ah, they want the mancala boards!

We are quite intentional about setting up math environments that don’t scream MATH CENTER.

We start with authentic materials like the mancala boards—materials that encourage sensory play and exploration. Then we sneak in other materials that lead the children into deeper math investigations.

We don’t focus much on rote counting and number recognition. Instead, we foster the development of the children’s number sense because we want the children to move on from rote number identification to a more holistic understanding of number quantity. 

Children learn math at their own pace by using many different skill sets that don’t always develop at the same pace or in the same order. So we give them lots of options to let them learn in their own unique ways. By keeping it playful and hands-on, we set them up for math success. 

The new math that is being taught in schools uses ten frames a lot. So what is a ten frame?

A ten frame is a rectangle with 10 equal spaces. It has five spaces on the top and five on the bottom. You can use counters or math manipulatives to represent numbers less than or equal to 10 on the frame. Ten frames are available to download and print from various websites—or you can use a ten frame like the one pictured above.

Ten frames help children “see” numbers by providing a visual representation of a number and its value. Ten frames also enable students to physically place items, each within a single “frame,” to create a visual representation of numbers from 0-10.

Ten frames help kids develop number sense. For our youngest learners, we often provide five frames, which are arranged in a 1-by-5 design. Research suggests that five frames are a good place to start for very young children. 

By working with numbers in ten frames, children can see the number of manipulatives that a number represents. Ten frames set the stage for work with larger numbers. I love ten frames because children can use them in ways that reflect their unique developmental level. Ten frames also enable children to play with patterns and group objects together. It may look like play, but ten frames help build a basic understanding of early math—and lay the foundation for later math learning.

I love wooden ten frames like the one in the photo above, but they are pricey. I have been searching for (and finding!) mancala boards at thrift shops and yard sales for years. We now have a collection of second-hand ten frames that we use for playful math. 

You can buy a ten frame or download ten-frame printables from various early childhood websites, but there are endless ways to create your own ten frames. We’ve used egg cartons, ice cube trays, tape on a table (above) and chalk on the sidewalk.

Recently, I had the grand idea of taping the ends of our mancala boards to create ten frames (see photo above). I was feeling quite giddy about my clever adaptation, but then I decided that the tape would be distracting. So I went one step further and cut my mancala boards into ten frames (see photo below).

Then I realized that five frames would be even better for the two-year-olds in my program. With a five frame, younger students can use smaller set sizes that are within their developmental counting range.

Young children are always collecting something. By incorporating a five frame into their collecting activities, we help them develop a rudimentary understanding of number sense.

Pete the Cat and his oh-so-groovy buttons have been at the top of our reading and music rotation list lately, so adding button manipulatives seemed like a logical next step.

But beware: Any small manipulative is a choking hazard, so please choose your manipulatives carefully!

By now, I was a bit “saw happy,” so I also created a three-frame to use with subitizing and a two-frame, as well as a one frame for one-to-one correlation. Remember, we want these activities to be developmentally appropriate for the youngest children in our programs.

Remember, our goal is not to work on counting, but to set the stage for later learning with these early math tools.

Older preschoolers can move up to the ten frames when they are ready. I generally suggest that they start in the top left corner and fill the entire top row before moving on to the second row (just like reading).

Of course, this is way beyond the developmental level of our youngest learners. All that we want to see with these children is the ability to place one button in one circle. As their brains continue to develop and their understanding of early math concepts grows, they can graduate to ten frames.

While the children are playing with their frames, you can help foster the development of counting skills by putting a counter in each square of the frame and saying: “One, Two, Three, Four, Five—you have five buttons.”

Then tell the children to count the buttons. After they have counted to five, ask: “How many buttons are there altogether?”

If they answer five without recounting, they may be exhibiting an understanding of cardinality (the knowledge that the last word in a counting sequence represents the total number of objects in a set).

Cardinality is a school standard for kindergartners, but your early learners will just think of it as a fun game to play with buttons! 

You can easily adapt these Early Math Counts lesson plans for use with ten frames in your classroom:

• Groovy Buttons
• Mouse Count
• What Comes in Twos, Threes and Fours?

Don’t forget to click on the CONNECT WITH FAMILIES button on the left side of each lesson page to download and customize a Family Letter to send home with your students after each lesson.