Number Sense

Number sense is something that begins to develop very early.

Young children’s earliest reasoning is likely to be about number situations, and their first mathematical concept will probably be of numbers. Even before children can talk, there is a sense that adding something to a group makes it larger, and taking something away makes it smaller.

Number sense is the ability to count and recognize number, identify the relationships among numbers, and understand how to use them in a variety of ways, such as counting, measuring, or estimating.

It is an inner sense about numbers and reasoning that includes counting aloud, one‐to‐one correspondence, and ordinal numbers.

Some math concepts are so natural that children begin to do them - like sorting and grouping things together (making sets), rote counting, passing out one plate to each child at the table (one‐to‐one correspondence), asking friends “how many” they will be on their next birthday.

Children need exposure to math concepts, to learn new vocabulary or terminology so that math because a natural part of life to them and a promising way of problem solving.


In Kindergarten, we have been playing number games with manipulatives, learning how to add numbers together to make a larger set. We've been exploring combinations of numbers that together make a total. They explored their own quantities with the problem solving of "Mrs. Stefani has a bag of jelly beans. Some are red and some are white. How many jellybeans could Mrs. Stefani have?". The children made their own groupings to problem solve an open ended problem.