Emphasis on Number Sense

emphasis on number sense

Every number that emerges during a math class, in every lesson, is an opportunity to support the development of number sense.

Students understand the relationship between and among numbers and operations, decompose and compose numbers with ease, and use number sense to monitor reasonableness of solutions and estimate answers. In doing so, they connect the numbers on the page with the concepts they understand and develop procedural fluency.

Teachers relentlessly build and reinforce students’ number sense by integrating key activities (e.g. mental math, calendar math, number blocks) that develop their comfort with the relative size of numbers, the value of numbers, the sequence of numbers, the base 10 system, and place value. Teachers often connect equivalent values (ex: fractions, decimals, percent) and ask students to use number sense to estimate before solving a problem.

more on number sense

"Our students with number sense understand the relationship between and among numbers. They think flexibly about numbers, are able to break numbers and put them together in a variety of ways. They are also familiar with the properties of single-digit numbers and can use this information to calculate efficiently using larger numbers. Students with number sense also understand the effects operations have on numbers. They see connections between the different operations and have a firm grasp on which operation or series of operations to employ in a given situation. Another component of number sense is mental computation. Students with number sense can manipulate numbers in their head. They have strategies they use to think about numbers and operations. They do not rely solely on paper and pencil, their fingers, or calculator. Also, students with number sense have effective ways to estimate. They can approximate calculations and use familiar benchmarks to gauge unknown amounts."
-Developing Number Sense by Rusty Bresser and Caren Holtzman (Math Solutions, 1999).

start now

Strong number sense doesn't happen with one activity or one lesson. It has to be strengthened with daily exercise, which demands a commitment to emphasize number sense (the magnitude of numbers and relationship among numbers) with each lesson, with each day. This can be done outside of the math block, too!

There isn't one way or one route to build number sense, but here are some ways to get started:

Make a time to talk about numbers (K-5), even if it's quick.

Incorporate mental math into your instruction.
Ask kids to estimate and check for reasonableness every day.
Encourage multiple ways to solve problems, even simple operations, and have students share strategies. (An overlap with two other core components: multiple representation and real and meaningful discourse! Teacher bonus points!)

TIME TO TALK ABOUT NUMBERS

Implement or strengthen a start of day/class routine that asks students to explore a 'number of the day' to make connections with numbers (visually, verbally, equivalent representations), decompose numbers (ex: 62 is six tens and two ones), and compare that number to other numbers (ex: what does this fall between, is this more than or less than ___). This can be done through "calendar math" or as part of your warm up, morning meeting, etc.

In the top left picture, you see a teacher that keeps track of the days of school in a tens/ones chart. This means everyday students are asked to make sense of the place value. Ex: "Today is day sixty two. Can someone write 62 on the board in standard form? How many tens are in 62? How do you know? How could we represent 6 tens with our rods? (Count 6 rods into the bag) How could represent the 2? What does the 2 mean? How do we know? Would we use the rods? (No, 2 unit cubes go in the bag). Having this quick discussion every day can be very valuable, in all grades.

SOME ACTIVITIES YOU COULD USE OR MODIFY DURING YOUR "NUMBER TIME"
These have been downloaded from the Virginia Department of Education (2012).

Kinder_Number Sense
File Size:	1126 kb
File Type:	pdf