Developing Number Sense

I love watching my grandsons learn. I *might* be just a little proud to be their Gammy! Brody is learning to count by rote and Matthew has one to one counting down pat! It's so fun to watch! The fact that I don't have to worry about their everyday routines, and the fact that I know more about how children develop number sense than when my kids were little, makes this a new experience.  One day Matthew and I were playing with a bucket of plastic animals and we were having a conversation. Here's how it went:
      Me: "Matthew, how many fish do you have?"
      He counts, "1,2,3,4,5."
      Me, with excitement, "That's right, buddy! How many fish do you have?"
      With great confidence Matthew says, "Three!"
It's three---EVERYTIME!!! It's exciting to watch your grandchildren develop number sense and to see them move through the various stages. As we work with our school children, we use a variety of tools to help them develop number sense. 
You might use dot plates, tens frames, fives frames, dominoes, cards, dice, or rekenreks, to name just a few. Here are a few games that we play using some of these tools.

Dot Plates

Dot plates or cards are just another way to helps students learn number conservation, basic addition facts, basic subtraction facts and multiplication.

 Here's a game that we play:

• Invite the children to turn over two dot plates.
• Record the dot plates on the recording page.
• Add the dots together to make the sum.

But, here's the cool part! Once I teach that game in small group, I can now simply change the tool to rekenreks, dominoes, tens frames, or fives frames. Then, the children are practicing the same exact skill but, no time is lost teaching a new game!

Tens Frames

A tens frame is used to build numeracy skills such as counting, comparing, odd & even, sets, mental math, 1:1 correspondence, fact families, etc.

 Here's a game that we can play:

• Invite the children to spin the spinner.
• Now, put that many horseshoes onto the tens frame.
• On the recording page, write the numeral to show how many you placed on the tens frame.
• How many more do you need to make a ten? Record that number.
• You can play this same game with a fives frame.

Dot Plates

Here's another game that we can play with dot plates:

• Hide a dot plate under the cowboy's bandana.
• Lift the bandana to see the set.
• Write clues on the recording sheet to describe that number.
• You can play this same game with any of the tools, rekenreks, dominoes, and fives & tens frames.

Fives Frames

A fives frame is used to build numeracy skills such as counting, comparing, odd & even, sets, mental math, 1:1 correspondence, fact families, etc.

Here's a game that we can play:

• Invite the children to roll the dice.
• Cross off that many numerals on the number chart.
• Roll again, using a different color of pen, cross of that many.
• Continue until al of the numerals are crossed out.

Dominoes

While dominoes is a popular game played by many, we can use them to develop number sense.  Dominoes can be used to build numeracy skills such as counting, comparing, odd & even, sets, mental math, 1:1 correspondence, fact families, etc.

Here's a game that we can play:

• Invite the children to roll the dice.
• Cross off that many numerals on the number chart.
• Roll again, using a different color of pen, cross of that many.
• Continue until al of the numerals are crossed out.

Rekenreks

The Rekenrek helps young children develop powerful understandings of numbers -- their meanings, their relationships to one another, and how we operate with them. They can be used to encourage informal strategies for addition and subtraction, for example, using doubling and halving strategies, counting-on from known quantities to solve addition and subtraction problems, etc.

 Here's a game that we can play:

• Invite the children to turn over two numerals and place them on the boot addition game board.
• Add dots to the rekenreks for each numeral.
• Draw the circles on the recording page and add the two sets together.
• Record the sum.
• You can play this same game with any of the math tools.

These games and recording pages can be found in this unit.

You might already have this unit and not recognize the cover. I recently updated the unit with new graphics and fonts to give it an updated, new look! If you already have it, you can go to your "my purchases" section on tpt and download the updated version.