Children need opportunities to experiment with numbers, play with them and learn them, just as they do with letters to build phonemic awareness . Learning to truly understand numbers (rote counting, counting objects, and identify numbers fluently) is essential to help expand knowledge and learn new ideas. A strong number sense is very important for future understanding of more complex math topics.
The activities below can be used to have conversations about numbers, allow students to order, count, or match., and to help students see numbers in everyday, natural, fluid ways.