Counting to 20: Numbers Have Names and Places

Hold up both your hands. Wiggle all ten fingers. Now imagine a friend has ten more fingers too — that's 20! Every single number from 1 to 20 has its own special name, and it always shows up in the exact same spot in the counting line. Numbers are never shy — they always go in the same order, every time you count.

- Say the numbers 1 through 20 in the correct order - Match a number word to the right amount of objects - Tell which number comes right before or right after another number - Build the numbers 11-20 using groups of ten and extra ones

The numbers 1 through 10 are the building blocks for every other number you will ever count. Say them slowly with me: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Each number tells us exactly how many things we have — 3 apples means there are three apples, not two and not four.

Here's a secret about the numbers 11 to 19: they are all just 'ten' plus a little bit more! Eleven is ten plus one. Fourteen is ten plus four. Nineteen is ten plus nine. That's why they're called the 'teen' numbers — think of them as a full group of ten fingers, plus a few extra fingers from a second hand.

Twenty is special because it's exactly two full groups of ten — like two friends each holding up all ten fingers. When we count 20 blocks, we can put them into two neat piles of ten to check our answer instead of counting one by one.

Every number has a neighbor right before it and right after it, just like houses on a street. The number before 10 is 9. The number after 10 is 11. If you know where a number lives on the counting line, you can always find its neighbors.