Number Sense Learning Trajectory

I spent the last two weeks of July in a math PD workshop.  I admit to not being thrilled to give up two full weeks of my summer break when I could be doing important stuff like sleeping in, going to the lake, staying up late at campfires, swimming, and just generally having some down time, but I am so glad I did agree to go, since I came away with a deeper understanding of teaching math. To begin with, take at look at these words and definitions.  Our first task was to match the word to the definition (that was the easy part), Early Number Sense Learning Trajectory  then order them in the sequence that a child goes through these mathematical milestones.   That proved much more difficult for many of us.  Take a few minutes to see if you can match words and definitions and put them in the correct order.

And here are the stages in the correct order.  You can see by the time they come to first grade, many of these milestones have been attained.  But if you have a child who is struggling, you can try to pinpoint where he/she is on this list, and that can drive your remediation for the child. Graham Fletchy has some great progression videos.  In this first video, he talks about the early progression of math development. It's seven minutes long, but well worth your time. Early Number and Counting One way to build that early number sense fluency is to incorporate Quick Images into your daily math routine, spending about 5 to 15 minutes on the activity.  Using cards with dots on them that are arranged in various groups, you flash the cards quickly for about 3 to 5 seconds to visualize the amount.  Then you ask the students what they saw using questions like -How many did you see?       -How did you know it so quickly? -Did you need to count? -What did you see? -How could you tell the number so quickly?  While discussing these quick images, allow children to freely share their ideas.  It is important that they be able to verbalize their math thinking without being worried about being "right". You can learn more about quick images by clicking the button below.  Also included are dot pattern cards for you to get started with your quick image routine.

More information about Number Talks and Quick Images Download Quick Images Dot Cards

I hope  you find this information useful for your math instruction.  Be sure to check out my next newsletter, where I will be sharing some great websites and apps you will be able to use during your math block to help build number sense!