Developing our Number Sense

One of the ways we help develop our number sense is to think of different ways to write, or name, a number.  We use what we call a name collection box to think of different ways to name a number.  Like this:

So far, we've talked about the word names of numbers, where numbers fall in a number line, how to write numbers as tallies, how to write numbers in a ten frame, and how to show numbers with blocks.

As we continue to learn about numbers, we'll add more ways to name a number to a collection box.  We do a name collection box daily, and we vary which number to collect each day.

Another way to name numbers that I introduced this week is putting two other numbers together to make our targeted number.  We're learning how addition works, but I haven't been calling it that yet.  Do you see how we've looked to find all of the different ways we can make the number 6 using two different colors of blocks?

This is a target we will be working on all year, and it will help students throughout elementary math.  To help your child along, pick a number (we will use numbers 1-31 this year, but so far we've only worked with numbers 1-6), and ask your child to think of two different names for that number.  Watch your child become better at it as the year progresses!