In everyday learning incorporate the language of mathematics through the use of songs, rhymes and puppets. Familiar tunes such as Five Little Ducks, Five Cheeky Monkeys or Ten Little Speckled Frogs can be used in incidental one-to-one opportunities, small group situations or whole group interactive sessions. Important number concepts to be developed when counting include: the stable order principle, one-to-one correspondence, cardinality, abstraction principle and order-irrelevance principle. Children and educators demonstrate these principles when:
- Reciting the number names in order
- Oral counting while touching objects
- Counting the total in the set
- Counting, starting from any object
- Counting on
- Counting backwards
This Starting Point is contributed by Dr Marianne Knaus. Go to the Starting Points Forum to discuss the use of songs, rhymes and puppets to develop an understanding of counting for Early Years' learning.
