Session 9A How Children Learn Math : The Concept of Number: Number sense and Counting

Objectives:
1. To understand that counting involves more than reciting a string of words.
2. To understand that the basis of true counting (rational counting) involves the important thinking skills: one-to
one correspondence, classification, seriation and pattern recognition, and conservation
3. To understand that number sense involves an understanding of equivalence, inequivalence and magnitude
4. To understand that children learn the concept of number from concrete to abstract experiences, therefore
teachers need to provide developmentally appropriate activities instead of workbook exercises

Materials needed: materials needed for each activity station

Procedure:

Icebreaker 1: Sing and act out the following number songs

Five Green Bottles Five Green Speckled Frogs

Five green bottles standing in a row (2x)
And if one green bottle should accident’ly fall
There’ll be four green bottles standing in a row …
Five green speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log
Eating the most delicious bugs, “Yum, yum!”
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool
Then there were four green speckled frogs….

Five Little Monkeys Isa, Dalawa, Tatlo

Five little monkeys sitting on a tree Isa, dalawa, tatlo
Teasing Mr. Crocodile, “You can’t catch me, no you Una-unahan tayo
can’t catch me!” Apat, lima, anim
Along came Mr. Crocodile hungry as can be and SNAP! Sa balong malalim
Four little monkeys sitting on a tree teasing Mr. Pito, walo, siyam
Crocodile, “You can’t catch me, no you can’t catch Lakad parang langgam
me!”… Pagdating sa sampu
Ang lahat ay umupo

Ten Little Angels Lima Ang Daliri

There was one, there were two, there were three Lima ang daliri ng aking kamay
Little angels Si Nanay, si Tatay, si Kuya, si Ate
There were four, there were five, there were six At sino ito?
Little angels Ako, ako
There were seven, there were eight, there were nine Lima ang daliri ng aking kamay
Little angels
Ten little angels in the band
Oh, listen to the band, Monday morning (3x)
Monday morning now

Johnny Works
Johnny works with one hammer one hammer, one hammer
Johnny works with one hammer,
Johnny works with two…
(One hammer – pound right hand
Two hammers – pound both hands
Three hammers – pound 2 hands, stomp right foot
Four hammers – pound 2 hands, stomp 2 feet
Five hammers – pound 2 hands, stomp 2 feet, nod the head)

…works with five hammers

Johnny goes to sleep

Workshop Activity: The Concept of Number: Number Sense and Counting

Ask the participants:

1) “How do children learn how to count?”
2) “How do they learn about numerals?

List down responses of the participants on the board

Possible answers:
1) Parents teach number names – 1 to 10 and children are expected to memorize these.
Parents introduce numbers through songs.
Before a child’s first birthday, she is taught to use her pointer finger to mean “1”
2) Children see numbers on TV, computers, cellphones and other gadgets.
3) Parents buy number books.

Divide the participants into 5 groups. Each group will spend 15-20 in each of the stations to explore activities that
help children understand the concept of number and learn how to count

**Instructions of each activity are in the appendix.

Station 1: Number Stations, Number Books

Station 2: Mixed Up Numbers, It’s a Match, Grab Bag Counting

Station 3: Number Clip Game, Fifty Wins, Number Link, Take Your Place

Station 4: Number Snap, Concentration, Number Match (Lotto), Number Call Out (Bingo)

Station 5: Fishing Game: Numbers, Grasshopper, Same and Different Numerals

After the participants have had time to engage in the activities, discuss the following key learning points on how
children develop a sense of number and how they actually learn to count.

Key Learning Points:

I. Recognizing the number of objects is a small collection is an innate part of number sense. (Subitizing)
 Counting is not required because numerosity is identified in an instant.

II. Children need to learn that it is important to use ‘number words’ when counting. Thus they have to simply
memorize the string of words.

To be successful in counting the child must put the number words and objects in one-to-one
correspondence.

Knowing and successfully using the sequence are two separate, but sequentially related skills.

Counting with skill and understanding is an important problem-solving tool in mathematics

Icebreaker 2: Counting Game

Stand Up, Sit Down

Objective: to count forward (1-4) and backward (4-1)

To learn one-to-one correspondence
Players: whole group
Procedure:
The participants will count forward from 1-4 only. The person who will say ‘four ‘stands up. The count
continues 1-2-3-4, and the next person who say ‘four’ until everyone is standing up.
The participants will now count backward from 4-1. The last person to count during the first part starts the
counting sequence, saying ’four’. The person who now says ‘one’ sits down. The count continues 4-3.2-1 until
everyone has had a seat

Continue with the discussion

III. Counting involves a hierarchy of skills.

1) Rote counting or saying number words in the correct sequence (seriation)

2) Enumeration or systematically assigning a number word to each object being counted (one-to-one
correspondence)
3) Cardinality or recognizing that the last number in the counting sequence tells them the total number of
objects in the collection
4) Magnitude or understanding that position in the sequence of numbers is associated with relative size

IV. Language affects counting.

The time required to pronounce numbers in a given language is correlated to the memory span of numbers
in its speakers.

The number word differences affect the experiences that Asian and English-speaking children will have with
arithmetic in their early school years.
 V. The concept of number emerges as children sort materials into groups and collections.
It develops along with children’s understanding of classification and seriation.

The understanding of number

- involves children’s emerging understanding of one-to-one correspondence
- is shaped by children’s developing sense of conservation

Show participants 3 pens

When you ask a 4 year old to count these pens he would say, ‘one-two-three’.
Ask this child, ‘give me three’ and he gives you the third pen.

This means that most 4 year olds can only recite the numbers but don’t fully understand the concept of
number. In order for a child to have a sufficient understanding of number he should be able to understand
that 1 and 2 belong to the quantity 3 (classification, conservation)

VI. Number sense involves an understanding of equivalence, inequivalence and magnitude

Children need to understand that:

1) appearance is irrelevant in determining whether or not 2 sets are equal (equivalence).
2) number can specify differences in sets (inequivalence)
3) number can specify “more” or “less”.
4) different numbers are associated with different magnitudes
5) the larger of two numbers comes later in the count sequence.
6) each count word is one more than the preceding count word in the number sequence
7) when nothing is added or subtracted, matching sets of objects remain equivalent regardless of
appearance (conservation)

VII. Children learn the concept of number from concrete to abstract experiences.

Teachers therefore should be able to provide developmentally appropriate activities at each stage of
concept development

VIII. There are no short-cuts to learning math

For learning to become more meaningful, children need to be given sufficient time to learn number
concepts. Numbers are not just symbols. Each number is a concept in itself.

Evaluation/Reflection Questions:
What kinds of activities have you provided your students during the past weeks for them to learn how to count?
What strategies have you tried when children start showing difficulties (e.g. forgetting the number names, numeral
reversals).
References:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. The Brain and Mathematics. Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development Press, Alexandria, Virginia, 2001.

Baratta-Lorton, Mary. Mathematics Their Way. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Menlo Park,
California, 1976.

Baroody, Arthur. Children’s Mathematical Thinking. A Developmental Framework for Preschool, Primary and Special
Education Teachers. Teachers College Press, New York, 1987.

Burns, Marilyn. About Teaching Mathematics, a K-8 Resource, 2nd edition. Math Solutions Publications, Sausalito,
California, 2000.

Copeland, Richard. How Children Learn Mathematics. Teaching Implications of Piaget’s Research. MacMillan
Publishing Co., Inc. 1979

Hohmann, Mary and David P. Weikart. Educationg Young Children. Activve Learning Practices for Preschool and
Child Care Programs. High Scope Press, Ypsilanti, Michigan, 1995.

Kamii, Constance Kazuko. Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic. Implication of Piaget’s Theory. Teachers College
Press, New York, New York, 1984.

Moomaw, Sally and Brenda Hieronymus. More Than Counting, Whole Math Activities for Preschool and
Kindergarten. Redleaf Press, St.Paul, MN. 1995.

Sousa, David. How the Brain Learns Mathematics. Corwin Press, California. 2008