Kindergarten is a jam-packed year of learning! If you teach this rambunctious and enthusiastic grade level, you know there are SO many foundational skills covered throughout the year. One of which is beginning number sense and counting. Before you dive into more complex math concepts, making sure your students have strong number sense skills is key! Ready to learn some new ways to make teaching kindergarten number sense fun and easy? Let's dive into my method for introducing and teaching kindergarten number sense!
What Does Number Sense Look Like in Kindergarten?
Number sense is built upon throughout the primary grades and beyond. In kindergarten, however, we're beginning at the most basic level. During this first year of school, number sense activities focus on the following:
- number recognition
- counting
- number relationships
- decomposing numbers
- representing numbers
- number formation
Helping your students gain a firm grasp on these concepts at the beginning of the year will help tremendously with their overall success. When it comes to kindergarten, student experience with number sense is often a mixed bag. What I mean by this is that some children might have some prior knowledge of these concepts from preschool. While for many others, this might be their very first exposure.
Keeping this in mind, I like to spend a couple of weeks going over each number from 1-10 in depth with my students. Dedicating a day to each number helps ensure my students get lots of practice working with them and will help everyone, especially my number sense newbies, understand these concepts!
Getting Started with Numbers 1-10
At the beginning of the year, we spend a day working on each number from 1-10. Plus one more day on the number 0. It's important for our students to understand that there is a number to represent that too!
The idea behind this is to introduce numbers, help kiddos recognize them, and build each day by adding one more number until we reach ten.
I love this strategy because it's laid out in a familiar format day after day. We all know that students thrive on predictability and routine, so I've found this method to work wonders with introducing number sense skills.
When it comes to focusing on number formation, I have daily activities mapped out for that skill including poems, posters, worksheets, and center activities.
You can check out all of those in this post in greater detail if your kiddos need some extra practice with number formation. Today, however, I want to focus on recognizing numbers, counting them, and representing them in different forms.
Using Google Slides or PowerPoint for an Engaging Intro
If you've been around here a while, you've likely noticed that I love using technology integration in the classroom to boost engagement. In this digital age, it's one of the best ways to capture student attention instantly! It also serves as a wonderful method for introducing new concepts as well. I like to use Google Slides or PowerPoint resources projected up on the SmartBoard to introduce numbers 1-10 to my whole class.
We begin by going over a few slides that introduce the number and show it represented in a variety of ways. The first slide shows the number, the number word, a tens frame, and dice. The next slide displays a number formation poem and tracing guide. The third slide for each number asks students to identify ways to represent the number. The final slide asks students to build the number in a tens frame.
Typically, I go through each of these slides with the group and use the interactive features to model it for my students. I make sure to explain each slide in depth and spend a few minutes on it for full comprehension. These slides come in handy during our initial introduction. They're also great for small-group intervention if you have some kiddos who are really struggling with these concepts. Simply pull them out again on a tablet and work through each slide in a one-on-one setting.
Number Sense Practice Activities
Once we've had our introduction, I like to put the number sense information my students have learned into practice! We use printable number sense worksheets that mirror what we focused on in the slides. You can use these as whole class practice, in small groups, or in centers.
Each page focuses on the following:
- number formation poem
- tracing and writing the number
- building in a tens frame
- building with counting bears
- tracing and writing the number word
- finding the number word
- drawing a set to represent the number
Typically, I like to have students complete these pages independently after our whole class lesson. It is a great way for them to have immediate practice of what we learned.
While they are working, I will walk around and take note of how everyone is doing and do a quick visual assessment of student understanding. To help provide additional practice with these concepts, I will also slip these pages into dry-erase sleeves and use them during centers too. If my kiddos are really struggling, it never hurts to send the pages out as homework as well.
Number Sense Activities for Center Time
Our number sense activities don't end here! We all know that continued practice over time is where the magic truly happens, so I like to offer more fun ways to build number sense during center time. Pop-It Math Centers are a student favorite and a great way to keep engagement high as you practice number sense and counting skills.
These activities use Pop-It Fidget Toys to model numbers 1-10. Students will choose a card, show the number on their pop-it, and then fill it in on their recording sheet.
I love this activity for center time since it's super engaging for my students. They NEVER get tired of using Pop-It's, so that's a big win in my book!
The resource also comes with a second file for numbers 11-20, so you can continue to challenge your kiddos as they progress in understanding.
This activity also comes with digital, Google Slides task cards as well. They are a lot of fun to display on the SmartBoard and have your students show the correct answer on their own Pop-It. I like to have them swap with a friend to check their work after they “pop” their bubbles.
Boom Cards Activities for Number Sense
Do you and your students love Boom Cards as much as my students and I do? They're such a great option for center time since they're no-prep, self-correcting, and provide immediate feedback. Not to mention, my students view these more as “games” than assignments, which makes continued practice for just about any skill fun and easy!
When it comes to working on number sense, I love using these Boom Cards during our math centers.
This bundle of 5 Boom Card decks is filled with fun and engaging games to help my students master numbers 1-10. There are activities for basic number sense, counting, number recognition, number representation, and one-to-one correspondence.
I love the simplicity of being able to set up Boom Cards on a computer or tablet during center time. No printing, cutting, or prepping necessary! Technology integration with Boom Cards helps lighten my prep load, while also keeping things interesting for my students as well.
Grab a Freebie and Get Started!
Want to take Number Sense Boom Cards for a test drive in your own classroom? Enter your information below to be sent a FREE set of Boom Cards to practice counting numbers 1-10. These will be the perfect addition to your number sense lessons. They will also help you get a sense of how they'll work in your classroom.
Start Planning Your Own Kindergarten Number Sense Lessons
I hope taking a peek at my lesson plan book offered some inspiration for your own planning. When it comes to mastering kindergarten number sense, and really anything in the primary grades, I lean heavily into variety. Using a fun mix of interactive slides, no-prep worksheets, engaging hands-on centers, and digital games is my go-to formula for success!
You can take a closer look at all of these activities in my TPT Shop, along with lots of other fun kindergarten math activities!
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