Count It, Draw It, Show It: Numbers Have Many Faces

Look at your hand. How many fingers do you have? Five! Now hold up five crayons. Draw five stars on paper. Say the word 'five' out loud. All of those things mean the SAME number — 5. Numbers are amazing because they can look a lot of different ways. Today you will learn to spot the number 5 (and other numbers!) no matter what disguise it is wearing.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to: • Show any number from 0 to 10 in at least three different ways. • Match a number word (like SEVEN) to the right numeral and picture. • Count a group of objects carefully and write the number that tells how many.

Let's use the number 4 as our star. FINGERS: Hold up 4 fingers. Easy! DOTS: Draw 4 dots on paper: • • • • TALLY MARKS: Draw 4 lines: I I I I TEN-FRAME: A ten-frame is a box split into 10 squares. Fill in 4 squares — the rest stay empty. NUMBER WORD: Write the word FOUR. Every single way above says the exact same thing: four! Numbers have many faces, but they all point to the same amount.

Numbers have names. Here they are: 0 = ZERO 1 = ONE 2 = TWO 3 = THREE 4 = FOUR 5 = FIVE 6 = SIX 7 = SEVEN 8 = EIGHT 9 = NINE 10 = TEN When you see the word SEVEN, your brain should picture 7 things. Try it right now: close your eyes and picture seven apples sitting on a table. Can you see all seven? That picture in your head IS the number seven.

When you look at a group of things, you can COUNT them to find the number. Always follow these three steps: 1. Point to each thing ONE at a time — never skip, never count twice. 2. Say the number as you point: 'one, two, three...' 3. The LAST number you say is how many there are. This is called one-to-one counting. It is the most important early math skill, and it takes practice to do it without mistakes!