Number sense is a compilation of
relationships that build a “sense of numbers.”
đź“ŚTHIS IMAGE FOR LATER
 |
| Add caption |
John Van de Walle’s book
Teaching Student Centered Mathematics K-3 (2006) talks about four number
relationships that help develop number sense.
1. Spatial relationships
2. One and two more or one or two less
3. Benchmarks of 5 and 10
4. Part-part whole
I love doing activities that help develop number sense to make learning fun.
relationships – having a visual of a quantity. Instead of seeing 4 as just the
digit 4, students need to see fours things.
Play Boom Cards
and two more, one and two less – this is not the ability to count on two or count back two, but instead knowing which numbers are one or two less or more than any given number.
Play Roll and Exercise
1. Roll dice and figure out how many exercises to do.
2. Do squats, jumping jacks, run in place or high knee cross raises.
Play with Number Paths
Play Spill the Beans
Pick a number to focus on then shake the beans and record what you see. Check out other ways to work easily with these beans at Number Bean Fun.
The best thing you can do that
builds number sense is asking how numbers and/or problems relate to each other. Students need to see connections
easily. Check out 10 Ways to Develop Number Sense.
Questions for Number Sense
Click to check out a ten frame I made to help with talking about number sense. Have students look at
numbers, pictures of objects, or problems and ask:
do you notice?
do you wonder?”
the same?
different?”
