Teaching Young Children Numbers Zero to Ten
Activities to Develop Number Recognition at Home
Jul 22, 2009
In the book, Count on Math: Activities for Small Hands and Lively Minds, Pam Schiller and Lynne Peterson define numeration to be the discovering and understanding the “manyness” of numbers.
Parents can work with a child to develop numeration skills by playing games and making the time together fun and filled with learning. When working with a child on number recognition, a parent should first work on numbers zero to five then six to ten until mastery. Too much at first may discourage a young learner.
Here are some fun activities for parents to help teach number recognition to a child:
Start Teaching About Numbers
Singing songs about numbers is a very important skill for young learners. Children love to sing and dance. By using music and rhyming songs can help a child remember the sequence of numbers. Singing daily and making games with songs can help strengthen number recognition skills.
Song choices:
- Hot Potato
- Five Green and Speckled Frogs
- Five Little Ducks
- Five Little Monkeys
- This Old Man
- One, Two Buckle My Shoe
Parents can make a song come to life by creating a simple activity that goes along with each song. For example, by making five speckled frogs out of green paper, glitter and using the numbers one to five on each frog, parents can make the song Five Green and Speckled Frog more enjoyable. Making a number song interactive is a great way to promote number recognition.
Using items from around the house can be another great way to promote number recognition. One item to use would be a clock. By using either an analog or digital clock, a child can review numbers up to twelve on an analog clock and fifty-nine on a digital clock. Parents using an analog clock can use the hands of the clock to point to numbers in any order as a review.
Hands On Numeration Activities
- Sandpaper Numbers: Cut numbers zero through ten out of sandpaper. Have a child make sandpaper rubbings of each number using white paper and a crayon.
- Number Cards: Write the numerals zero to five on index cards. Punch holes at the top and bottom of each card. At the bottom of the yarn place an index card with the word START written on it. Then help the child to thread the yarn with the number zero then moving all the way up to five. Model a few times then let the child become independent with threading the yarn.
- Dot-to-Dot Worksheets: These worksheets are a fantastic way to reinforce number recognition. There are many good sites that offer free printable pages like abcteach.com.
- Egg Carton Numbers: Using an empty egg carton print the numbers one to twelve at the bottom of each space. Then on construction paper print the numbers one to twelve and cut out into little circles. Let the child take each circle number and match to the number written at the bottom and place the paper number on top.
There are many fun filled activities to help a young learner learn numbers. By working on a dot-to-dot worksheet, matching dots to numbers at the bottom of an egg carton or using an analog clock can help teach numbers to a young child. Learning numbers is a fundamental skill in Mathematics and reinforcement at home is very important in order to help strengthen and develop number recognition.
Schiller, Pamela Byrne. Count on Math: Activities for Small Hands and Lively Minds, MD: Gryphone House, Inc. 1997.
If you found this article helpful check out Teaching Math Patterns to Young Children by Jackie Parsons.
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