Number Sense and
Numeration
By: Katarina Solomon
Big Ideas
Numeral Writing and Recognition
Using Numbers in our World
Relationships Between Numbers 1-10
Looking at Subitizing
Looking at the 6 Counting Principles
Numeral Writing and
Recognition
Children need to learn to connect the names of
numbers to the numerical representation, to the
correlating group
Two
This involves knowing that the name two
corresponds with the number 2. After this, the
student can identify a group of objects as having
two objects
Using Numbers in our World
Sequence Context:
Rote Counting
Verbally counting in a
sequence without
matching numbers to
objects. Reciting
numbers like the
alphabet
Ordinal Context:
Indicating a relative
position in a set (1st, 2nd
3rd) May not know 3rd
but can identify 3
objects
Measure Context: Tells
how many objects there
are in total. The number
said quantifies the
amount of objects. Move
from the counting to
measure context, I have
4 toys compared to, I
have 4
Counting Context:
Rational Counting
When counting,
matching an object
with a number name.
This can be seen
through one to one
correspondence
Non-Numerical
Context: For
identification in no
particular order (phone
numbers, postal codes,
jersey numbers)
Relationships between
Numbers 1 through 10
Number Increases and Decreases
Benchmark Numbers
Part-Part-Whole relationships
One and Two More
One and Two Less
When counting,
numbers increase
and decrease each
time by 1
Number
Increases
and
Decreases
Can look at 4 and
know it is one more
than 3 and two less
than 6
Kids dont
automatically make
this relation with
numbers
Benchmark
Numbers
5 and 10 frame
arrays are used
to help visualize
benchmarks
Use 5 and 10
Use 10 as a
number to relate
to when looking at
different numbers
Example: When looking at
the number 7, we think 2
more than 5, and 3 away
from 10
Two 5s make
up 10
Part-Part Whole Relationships
The whole representation is made up by adding the 2 parts
together. 4 blue circles and 4 red circles make up a whole of 8
circles. A good activity to demonstrate this understanding is
using dot plates.
Part
Part
Whol
Subitizing
A fundamental skill that students use to understand number
sense and numeration
Able to recognize the quantity of objects, without having to
count them individually. This can be done by recognizing
groups of objects.
Teaching Part-Part-Whole relationships
Can use manipulates to demonstrate an understanding such
as dot plates, dominoes, dice, or fingers
The next slide shows examples how partpart-whole relationships can make up
different numbers up to 10.
Students can see how the one part of red
circles are added to the second part of blue
circles to make up the whole number labeled
in the top left corner of that square.
These representations can be used on dot
plates to test subitizing.
10
Stable
Order
Principle
Movement
is
Magnitude
Principle
Order of
Irrelevance
Principle
Counting Principles
Cardinality
Principle
Conservatio
n Principle
One-to-One
Correspondenc
e Principle
My Demonstrations
I have used a subject to test the six counting principles in
the following slides
Subject: Savannah
Relationship: Sister
Age: 6 years old
Grade: 1
DI: Subject has speech apraxia and for the sake of this
video, I worded some of the questions in ways that she did
not have to give lengthy responses. This allowed for full
comprehension of the demonstrations given.
Stable Order Principle
Counting sequence stays consistent and is always the same
No matter what kind of objects are being counted, the
characteristics like size or colour, it is always counted as
1,2,3,4,5 etc.
Stable Order:
Unstable:
By practicing counting different objects in and outside of the
classroom, students will begin to realize that counting
always follows a repetitive pattern and never occurs in a
random order such as 1,4,2,7,5.
Order of Irrelevance Principle
The number of objects in a set will be the same
regardless of which object is used to being counting
The order doesnt change the total when counting
In both pictures of flowers, the total is 7 regardless
of the order we counted in
3
7
5
4
6
6
4
1
3
7
5
Conservation Principle
The distance apart of each object doesnt make
a difference on the total amount in a group
If objects are close together or spread apart, it
will always sum to the same number
I was wondering if this principle is related to
comparing, just say a pound of feathers to a
pound of gold? Although the quantity of feathers
is much larger than gold, the weight is equal. It
looks more but it actually weighs the same.
One-to-One
Correspondence Principle
Knows that when counting objects, only one object
gets one count
Kids will tend to count randomly, even when there
isnt an object to give a count number to
23 456 7
23
89
10 Tendencies
6 One-to-One
A strategy to help grasp this concept is having a line
dividing a sheet of paper and move each object to
the other side of the line when given a count.
Cardinality Principle
Knowing that the last number counted in a group represents
the total amount of objects
If a child needs to recount when asked how many objects
are in a group, this shows a child has not grasped the
cardinality principle yet
Kids dont develop one-to-one correspondence at the same
time as the cardinality principle. One may have cardinality
principle without one-to-one correspondence or vice versa
Teacher: Okay, so
how many frogs are
there in total?
Student:
1, 2, 3,
4
Has not grasped cardinality Student: 1,2,3,4
Student": 4
Understand
cardinality
principle
Movement is Magnitude
Principle
Understand that when counting up, the quantity
of the group is getting bigger and when counting
down, the quantity is getting smaller.
This magnitude can be seen on a number line,
with proximity to 0 going up or down
Increasing Quantity
0
Decreasing Quantity
10
Results
Savannah showed that she had a good
understanding of the counting principles. Number
sense begins in FDK and by grade one, most of
the students should have a good understanding
of each of these principles.
Savannah showed some good counting strategies.
As she counted each of her objects, she would
move the counted ones together, allowing her to
keep track of which ones still need to be counted.
She either made piles, moved objects one hand to
another or covered up pictures with her hands.
References
Clements, D.H. (1999). Subitizing: What is it? Why teach
it? Teaching Children Mathematics, March, 400-405
Jensen, r. (1993). Early Number and Numeration. In
Early childhood mathematics. New York: Macmillan Pub.
;.
Karp, Bay-Williams & Van de Walle. Elementary and
middle school mathematics: Teaching developmentally
(9th Ed.). Toronto: Pearson Education Canada Inc.
Ruth Beattys Week 2 Lecture, September 14th, Number
Sense and Numeration
The full-day early learning kindergarten program: 201011.(Draft ver.ed.).Toronto],ON:[Ministry of Education.
