Counting, Number Sense, Order Irrelevance Principle

Order-Irrelevance Principle – The Order of the Count Doesn’t Matter

The order-irrelevance principle refers to the understanding that the order in which objects are counted is not important. It doesn’t matter whether the counting procedure is carried out from left to right, from right to left or from somewhere else, so long as every item in the collection is counted once and only once.  For example:… Read More Order-Irrelevance Principle – The Order of the Count Doesn’t Matter

Cardinality, Counting, Number Sense

Cardinality – Giving Meaning to Numbers

Cardinality is the ability to understand that the last number which was counted when counting a set of objects is a direct representation of the total in that group. Children will first learn to count by matching number words with objects   (1-to-1 correspondence) before they understand that the last number stated in a count indicates… Read More Cardinality – Giving Meaning to Numbers

Number Sense, Stable Number Word Order

Stable-Order-Principle -Saying the Number Names in the Same Order Every Time

The stable-order-principle is one of the most basic principles of number and parents often think that this is the only concept a child needs to know.    It is the simple concept that the sequence for how we count always stays the same.    For example, it is always 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,… Read More Stable-Order-Principle -Saying the Number Names in the Same Order Every Time

Counting, Number Sense, One-to-One Correspondence

One-to-One Correspondence – A Counting Fundamental

  Children come to school with varied experiences related to counting. Even if young children can recite the number sequence it cannot be assumed that they can apply this knowledge to counting small sets of objects. Knowing the one-to-one correspondence principle is essential for organised, meaningful counting. This leads to an eventual ability to perform higher-level calculations… Read More One-to-One Correspondence – A Counting Fundamental

Counting, Number Sense

Number Sense – What is it? Why teach it?’

Number Sense is …. “… good intuition about numbers and their relationships. It develops gradually as a result of exploring numbers, visually them in a variety of contexts, and relating them in ways that are not limited by traditional algorithms.” (Howden, 1989) “Research indicates that early number Sense predicts school success more than other measures… Read More Number Sense – What is it? Why teach it?’