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.