Start with Counting

Counting is usually our introduction to numbers. From an early age, we heard people around us counting.  It is such an important skill, yet sometimes we look past it as too primary.

After the NCTM Regional Conference last fall, I came back with tons of ideas I wanted to put into action.  One of the biggest concepts I decided to do more of is counting.  I often work with students who struggle with basic number sense, and since that conference, we begin nearly every day with counting.  Sometimes we count by 1s, sometimes we count backwards, sometimes we count off decade....you get the picture.

I always try to use visuals/concrete objects as we are doing our counting, but sometimes my fingers won't move fast enough to keep up with the students pace.  Recently, I found this AWESOME site full of math visual videos that we can use as we count.  

Using these visuals and asking questions about what is happening is important to helping our students gain a better understanding of numbers.  This link takes you to the counting and place value videos, but Berkeley Everett has created visuals to go with many other math concepts.  Using these videos will really help us to make our math more visual!

Counting isn't just for our littles!  It is a great idea for all classrooms to begin class with counting.  Counting by multiples, fractions, whatever will strengthen your class's thinking and understanding of number!