Early Numeracy
What is Number Sense or Early Numeracy?
Early Numeracy in elementary school is related to number sense and student’s understanding of numbers and their relationships. It involves more than just knowing how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide—it’s about feeling comfortable with numbers and being able to think flexibly about how they work.
Key Concepts of Number Sense:
Why Does Number Sense Matter?
Number sense helps students become more confident and flexible with math. It allows them to solve problems easily, understand new concepts, and make connections between different areas of math. With strong number sense, students are better prepared for more complex math in later grades, like fractions, decimals, and algebra.
Here's a simple breakdown of what number sense includes and the order in which these skills develop as students learn:
| Early Numeracy Components and Learning Trajectories |
|---|
| Subitizing the ability to tell the number of objects in a set, quickly, without counting. |
| Verbal or Rote Counting is the ability to count in order forward and backward but without value assigned to the counting (singing to count). |
|
Object Counting and Comparison is the ability to assign the one-one correspondence. To assign meaning and value to the counting. |
| Cardinality is the ability to tell how many are in a set. When counting a set of objects, the last word in the counting sequence names the quantity for the set. |
| Hierarchical Inclusion is knowing that numbers are nested inside each other and that the number grows by one each count. 9 is inside of 10 or 10 is the same as 9+1 |
| Number Conservation is knowing that the number of objects remains the same when they are rearranged spatially. 5 is 4 + 1 OR 3 + 2. |
| Number Sense Relationships |
|---|
| Spatial Relationships: Having a visual to go with a numeral and using them to see relationships. |
| One/Two more or less: Instantly know the amount that is one or two more or less. |
| Benchmarks or Anchors of 5 & 10: Knowing how numbers relate to 5 and 10. |
| Part-Part Whole: Understanding how a whole can be broken into parts. |
| Compensation: The use of combined understanding of early numeracy and spatial relationships within numbers to reach a friendly number (such as a multiple of 10) |
Number Sense Learning Trajectories
Putting it All Together
This chart shows how all of the early numeracy components and number relationships work together through the learning trajectory for students. This chart is read left to right where skills build on each other. The chart can also be read from the top down to see how early skills are foundational to the next level of complexity in the learning trajectory.
