Developing Number Sense: Principles of Counting
All concepts of number sense need to be actively taught. The conservation principle is one of the first few principles children learn when developing their understanding of number sense.
Conservation Principle
This concept comes very easy for some students and not so much for others. It is the ability to count objects and not be concerned with their location relative to each other:
- 5 blocks touching each other are 5
- 5 blocks spread out on the playground are still 5
Practice
I usually play fun games with gems, cookies or random objects to explore conservation with students. Exploring with blocks during our learning block time or any other materials students are using will help them develop this skill
Small Group Instruction Example
With the gems, I will place some in my hands and pour them slowly together onto the table and have students count them. Then, I will have students pick them up and toss them into a bucket and count them. Practicing this in a variety of ways helps students develop this skill!
Click here to see other number sense principles and activities to support number sense development!
Number Sense Freebie
I use this landscape of learning to know where each student is developmentally with number sense and to target small groups with students who have similar needs. Click on the image to be able to download this!
