In a recent meeting with our building interventionists, they shared their concerns about students in upper grades who cannot count backwards--especially when they have to cross a ten (42, 41, 40, ?). I have found a similar problem in a number of the Firsties that I work with. These students can rote count, but they aren't always sure of the meaning of "before," "after," "one more," or "one less."
This lack of number sense is concerning, but I think we can find ways to strengthen our students' understanding through continued practice and modeling. I have created this SMART Notebook resource as a way to help us meet this problem head on. If this is a problem you know that some of your students face, you might be able to use this document in small group, or as a class warm-up every now and then.
Counting backward and understanding the relationship between consecutive numbers would fall into one of our Essential Skills. Please share in the comments below if you have other ways to help build this understanding in our students.
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