Number Relationships: a Foundation for Number Sense

In yesterday’s parent workshop (primary) session we talked about the importance of helping children build relationships between numbers. We focused on four such relationships, namely these:

• visual/spatial relationship
• anchors of 5 and 10
• 1 more/1 less (and 2 more/2 less)
• whole-part-part

Building these relationships for the numbers 1-10 lays the foundations for understanding other numbers, both larger and smaller. At every level of the place value system we can apply these same relationships. Students have the opportunity of taking something they already know and expanding it to something greater — a wonderful way for meaningful learning to happen! In exploring these ideas and relationships yesterday we used or discussed some tools, which I will post here:

• 1 to 100 chart
• 0 to 99 chart
• ten frames
• 100 dot arrays in two sizes
• large blank 10 frame (this can be enlarged further and used as a frame for putting ten cards in each space for building numbers to 100)

Thanks to all the participants in both workshops yesterday. Contact me if I can be of any further hep to you. Mathematically yours, Carollee