Chapter 3

COUNTING
More Than Just 1, 2, 3

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 Big Ideas about Counting
■ Counting can be used to find out “how many” in a collection.
■ Counting has rules that apply to any collection.

Math Snapshot
Ms. Kami knows that rituals around seeing who is present and absent each day
offer a wonderful opportunity to strengthen the children’s sense of community in
her blended classroom of 4- and 5-year-olds. Each child is standing at an assigned
spot around the edge of the rug. Ms. Kami announces, “We will begin our count of
who is here today with Ayla.” The children join Ms. Kami in saying, “One child is here
today,” and Ayla sits down. Tony is on her left as the group chants, “Two children
are here today,” and then he sits down. So it goes around the circle until the count
comes around to Asia, who is to Ayla’s right and the only child left standing. Everyone
joins in a triumphant, “Seventeen children are here today!!”
As Asia sits and takes her place “criss-cross applesauce” in the circle, Ms. Kami
announces, “We have 17 children at school today. And we have 17 children in our
class. So how many children are missing today?” Many children call out together,
“Zero!” and everyone joins Ms. Kami in doing a Perfect Attendance Round of
Applause.

There is no question that everyone delights in hearing young children count.

The children themselves love the pattern and rhythm of the language as they
chant or sing their way from 1 to 20 or 30 or even 100. They are warmed by the
smiles and words of approval and admiration from important adults, just as the
important adults, parents and teachers, take satisfaction in this demonstration of
the beloved child’s competence—the ability to count.
Counting is a part of young children’s daily life. They love to count everything
from the stairs they climb to the crackers they eat. But what is counting? What
is there to be understood about counting? What do most children know about
counting? What more is there to be learned? Counting seems very simple, but it is
really quite complex. By developing a sophisticated sense of what counting is and
what kind of counting we ought to emphasize in teaching, parents and teachers
can better assist children with the development of counting skills and mathemati-
cal thinking.

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 There are two types of counting: rote counting and rational counting. Rote
counting involves reciting the number names in order from memory. If a child says,
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,” the child has correctly counted up to 10 by rote. Rational
counting involves matching each number name in order to an object in a collection.
If a child says “one apple, two apples, and three apples” while tagging one apple at a
time, the child has developed rational counting skills up to a certain number.
While accurate rote counting has its place in the process of learning to count,
its function is rather limited. In contrast, when young children develop rational
counting skills, they are armed with a tool that enables them to understand the
concept of numerosity, to compare quantities of different sets, and eventually to
engage in operations. Rational counting is a foundation for children’s early work
with numbers.
We have identified two Big Ideas teachers and adults should focus on to
support the development of children’s rational counting skills:

● The first Big Idea—Counting can be used to find out “how many” in a collection—
speaks to the purpose of counting. Why do we count? We count because
we want to know the quantity of a collection. And the collections can be
physical objects (for example, chairs, apples) and nonphysical objects (for
example, sounds in the room, ideas).
● Counting has rules that apply to any collection—this is the second Big Idea in
counting. The four basic rules are stable order; one-to-one correspondence; order
irrelevance, and cardinality. When a child applies these rules to a counting
activity, he has mastered rational counting skills.

Big Idea: Counting Can Be Used to Find Out

“How Many” in a Collection

Math Snapshot
Ms. Kami routinely has a Question of the Day for children to answer upon arrival at
school. She always structures the questions for a yes or no answer, such as, “Did you
wear a jacket to school today?” Each child has a clothespin with his or her photo
glued on it, and they all clip the clothespins to a YES/NO T-chart to show their
answers to the question.
One of the favorite classroom jobs in Ms. Kami’s classroom is to be one of
the two Counting Captains who serve for a week. One captain counts the YES
responses, and the other captain counts the NO responses. At the end of the morn-
ing, Ms. Kami confers briefly with them, helping them count up the clothespins and
record the number. Before dismissal, the Counting Captains report to the group
how many responses in each column.

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 How much? and How many? are fundamental Big Idea questions that are so embed-
ded in our everyday life that we often are not conscious that in fact we are doing
math. We think of counting the children on the bus at the end of a field trip as
a safety issue; or our focus is on balancing storage space and our family’s eating
habits when we calculate how many juice boxes, yogurts, or cans of soup we want
to stock up on during a sale.
Knowing or understanding “how many,” however, is a complex developmental
process, which is closely related to the development of number sense discussed in
Chapter 2. Recall, there are four different ways we use numbers in our daily life:
referential, nominal, ordinal, and cardinal. Finding out how many is the cardinal
use of numbers—the primary purpose of a counting activity. Knowing how
many enables children to carry out number operation activities meaningfully. For
example, children can compare sets (e.g., here are three apples and two peaches—there
are more apples than peaches) and identify equivalence (e.g., you have two crackers and
I have two crackers, we have the same).
Counting to know how many is also closely tied to children’s subitizing skills—
the ability to perceive a small amount of objects and know “how many” there are
instantly without counting, which were discussed in Chapter 2. A goal shared by subi-
tizing and counting is to find out how many. They differ by method: subitizing does
not require a sequence of steps, whereas a highly structured set of coordinated actions
is the very core of counting. With or without elaborate procedures, the goal is the same.
Subitizing can play a supporting role in the development of children’s cardinal
understanding. By naming small sets with numbers, children eventually connect that
a set of three that they can instantly recognize, for example, is both three and counted
by enumerating 1, 2, 3. Imagine a child who can subitize three objects and who can
rote count to three, saying 1, 2, 3 in the correct sequence. Each experience count-
ing a set of three provides the child the opportunity to use what he knows—there are
three!—to figure out how count-
ing and cardinality works.
Another connection be- TEACHER TALK
tween number sense and the Barbara, Preschool Teacher
ability to find out how many by Yesterday, I worked with my 3-year-olds to count
counting relates to the concept to find out how many. We used five chairs. At the
of numerosity. As you will re- end, children chanted in unison, “Five chairs,” as I
circled all of the chairs with my gesture to indicate
call, the concept of “threeness”
the total amount. I was happy because they seemed
has little to do with the par- to know the concept of how many. Today, I went
ticular objects that children are back to the same activity but used five apples. You
counting. That is, when count- know what, at the end of the counting when I used
ing a set, each number name the same gesture to bring children’s attention to
the total, they made a big announcement with a
(one, two, or three) is not attached
great joy, “Five chairs!”First, I was puzzled. Then I real-
to any particular object, at least ized: to them, the number 5 was acting like a name!
not in a permanent way. The If it was attached to chairs yesterday, it stays
number names are used only there today. I can see we will need more experiences
temporarily, as a method of be- counting and naming other sets of five objects!
ing sure each item is included

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 in the count. In fact, these relationships be-
TEACHER TALK tween number names and particular objects
Aliya, 2.5- to 3-Year-Olds Day Care are so temporary that they can be switched
Room Teacher around without causing any problems, so
The kids in my room are whizzes at counting up to 8 that the object that is “one” the first time you
but that’s where it stops. I can’t seem to get them count can be “two” the next time, and you
to do 9 or 10. But when I said that to my colleague, will still get the same overall result.
she just laughed and pointed out that there are This temporary naming idea is a rather
eight children in my room and added, “They’ll get to
abstract and alien concept for young children.
10 fast enough when they are a little older—or if
you get to 10 children in the room!” I can kind of see Most of children’s experiences with names tie
her point. We are counting 8-this and 8-that all the them specifically to one item, or a particular
time. So I guess I don’t have to worry. set of items. Mommy is not any woman but the
one who loves you and takes care of you daily.
Chair refers to a kind of furniture for people
to sit on, and can’t be applied to the table without confusion. The counting words
are different. They are used whether children count themselves, stuffed animals
on their bed, shoes they wear, or crackers they eat. Further, we can count not only
physical objects, like jelly beans, boys, and girls, but also actions, like hugs or kisses,
sensations, like sounds and smells, and ideas, like wishes and imaginary friends.
Numerosity is such a powerful concept that it can be applied to literally anything!
Last but not least, similar to number sense development discussed in
Chapter 2, counting to find out how many relates to children’s concrete
experiences. That is, counting has to be meaningful to young children in order to
make sense. For example, counting out four meatballs to place on one’s plate during
lunchtime is much more interesting and meaningful than counting to find out how
many stars are printed on a worksheet. The former connects to children’s personal
interest whereas the latter is detached from their needs. Similarly, counting physical
objects is easier than nonphysical objects, because it is less abstract. Repeated expe-
riences with four meatballs, four crayons, and four toy cars provide the right input
to help young children generate a meaningful understanding of fourness!

Big Idea: Counting Has Rules That Apply

to Any Collection
Thanks to TV shows like Sesame Street, many children enter preschool chant-
ing or singing the number names from 1 to 20. Learning to count meaningfully
requires both memorizing arbitrary terms or number names (rote counting) and
rule-governed counting (rational counting). As described earlier, rote recitation of
the number words is not the same as having a good number sense for what 20, 25,
or 100 means. Experts agree that rational counting takes place only after children
have mastered four key principles or “rules” of counting: stable order, one-to-one
correspondence, order irrelevance, and cardinality. Each principle builds on understand-
ings developed in the previous ones.

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 Stable Order Principle

Math Snapshot
After a group activity that involved counting and moving at Family Night, Danny’s
dad pulls Ms. Kami aside. “I noticed Danny was right in there with all the motions;
but after 10 he was just saying random numbers like two-teen, seventeen, five-
teen, nineteen! Should we get some flashcards to drill him at home so he doesn’t
get behind?”
Ms. Kami smiles reassuringly. “There’s nothing to worry about. The more
Danny hears the number words in the right order, the better he will learn them. But
flashcards aren’t nearly as effective as you counting things with him. Make a kind
of game of it. Since you live on the second floor, count the steps as you go up and
down. Count how many red cars you see in oncoming traffic. Or just for fun, count
how many fingers or toes you have as a family.”

The definition of the stable order principle seems obvious to those of us who
have been counting for many decades: Counting words have to be said in the same order
every time. The order—one, two, three, four, and so on, is fixed, meaning that three is
always after two and before four. When Danny says two-teen, seventeen, five-teen, it
is clear he has not mastered the stable order rule in counting. As Ms. Kami sug-
gested to Danny’s dad, repeated practice through games and daily experiences will
help him develop both the understanding and the skills.
Because the order of number names is conventional, memorizing the se-
quence is a prerequisite to the use of the stable order rule in counting. However,
understanding the stable order rule is more than just the rote recitation of the
number sequence. Mathematical structures and patterns are embedded in the
process of the rule’s applications.
First, no matter what word or symbol we use to designate a quantity, each
number is always one more than the number before it and one less than the number after.
That is, the number sequence we use has an embedded mathematical structure.
In terms of number sequence, three is always after two and before four. With
regard to its mathematical structure, three is always one bigger than two and one
smaller than four. Rote counting alone won’t help to reveal this mathematical
structure, but having the words in the right order makes their cardinal amount
meaningful.
Number sequence also includes many interesting patterns that are central
to our understanding of numerosity and place value. As you can see on the
Hundred Chart illustration, our Arabic numerical system is base-10, or based
on a system of 10s. Because we group numbers by 10s, we can represent all
numbers using 10 digits (0 to 9), and there are patterns to how numbers are
represented. Because of these patterns, we know that when we reach a number

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 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

A Hundred Chart

that has 9 in the 1s place, the next higher number will end in 0, and have a
decade one digit higher. In this way, the fixed order of the digits 1 through 9,
combined with our place value system, creates a fixed, predictable, meaningful,
and powerful system.
It is well known that the teens in English are the one decade whose number
names distort the pattern—while twenty-one, twenty-two, and twenty-three follow
the pattern (name of decade number ⫹ name of ones-place number) with satis-
fying consistency, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and so on sound like a random
string. This is why Danny gets confused
when he starts counting teen numbers. The
TEACHER TALK Hundred Chart can be useful to help chil-
Florence, Pre-K Teacher dren, particularly kindergarteners and older,
I have found that the rhythm of a child’s voice often see how the number pattern does continue
indicates how confident he or she is about count- through the teens while practicing the stable
ing. Some children will fall into the counting chant order rule. For example, children can clap
from 1 to 10; in the teens you can hear some
and say each number in the 1 to 9 sequence
hesitancy and stop/starting. They may pick up the
chant again for the 20s and 30s; but then at 39, but jump up and shout at each 10 while
they stop; sometimes after a pause they remem- looking at the Hundred Chart—and if it is
ber that 40 is next and sometimes they just get not clear why we say fifteen instead of five-teen
stuck. (or even teen-five), at least the numerical rep-
resentation on the chart makes sense.

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 One-to-One Correspondence Principle

Math Snapshot
Ms. Kami has been very thoughtful about working meaningful counting activi-
ties into the routine of her classroom. At snack time, each table of five has a Snack
Chief. Whoever has the job for the week is responsible for putting out the cor-
rect number of paper plates or napkins, putting out the snack dish and taking
the drink orders. Ms. Kami knows that this is excellent practice with one-to-one
correspondence.
At the same time, Ms. Kami tends to use snacks that come in munchable bits
like goldfish crackers or pretzels. When everyone is seated, one of the Counting
Captains rolls the magic number cube. It is marked with dots; the faces are 3, 3,
4, 4, 5, 6. Once the Counting Captain has counted the winning die face and an-
nounced the result, the snack bowl starts its way around the table, with each child
counting out the designated number of treats. Ms. Kami reports that the whole
table joins in monitoring and helping everyone get a “fair share.”

A Die with Six Up and Six Pretzels

Most of us are clear about the fact that the one-to-one correspondence prin-
ciple means that one number is named for each object. While the principle seems
obvious to adults, it does take practice and time for children to fully grasp it. That
is, the child has to learn to coordinate the number words with the physical move-
ments of a finger and the eye along a line of objects, matching one number word
to one object until all of the objects have been used up.
In the process of developing one-to-one correspondence, young children
often make three types of errors: (1) sometimes children tag each object one at a
time but say the number words incorrectly, either missing words altogether or get-
ting them out of order; (2) sometimes children tag certain objects more than once,
also called double tagging; and (3) sometimes children miss tagging some objects,
as shown in the following illustration.

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 Common Errors with One-to-One Correspondence Principle
Correct correspondence
Incorrect sequence
(no stable order)
1 2 3 5 6 4 10 8

Correct sequence
Incorrect correspondence
(count too fast)
1 2, 3 4 5, 6 7 8 9 10

Correct sequence
Incorrect correspondence
(point too fast)
1 2 3 4 5

To help children develop the one-to-one correspondence principle, teachers

with strong mathematical understanding like Ms. Kami are very intentional about
making sure that all counting activities are linked to counting something—including
movements like the Full Body Count routine she used at Family Night. When that
something is an object, like toy cars in a line-up or goldfish crackers, she reminds
the children to tag by pointing at each object as they count it.
When children are making an error, rather than telling them they are wrong,
Ms. Kami asks them if they are sure—or uses opportunities when two children
arrive at a different total to get them to check. In Ms. Kami’s classroom, counting
is always directly linked to an authentic situation, such as daily routines and jobs
like Counting Captain or Snack Chief. Ms. Kami knows that children will better
understand and use one-to-one correspondence when the problems are real to
them and they are truly motivated to get the “correct answer.”

Order Irrelevance Principle

Math Snapshot
It’s another morning in Ms. Kami’s classroom, and time to count how many children
are here. Ms. Kami says, “Today we will start with Asia. One child is here today . . .”
but before Asia can sit down, Ayla speaks up. “Yesterday I was the one child, but
today it’s Asia. We won’t get the right number if it’s Asia.”

The order irrelevance principle builds on the rule of stable order and further
generalizes the idea behind one-to-one correspondence. It can be defined as no
matter in what order the items in a collection are counted, the result is the same. Children
who fully comprehend the meaning of counting realize that rearranging the group
of objects does not affect the total. Unlike reading, in which we go from left to
right, it does not really matter whether the counting procedure is carried out from

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 left to right, from right to left, or from somewhere else, so long as every item in
the collection is counted once and only once. Children who understand the or-
der irrelevance principle also understand that the number words are applied only
temporarily to the object being counted and have nothing to do with the objects
themselves.
This principle reflects the reality that in the world around us, most collections
we want to count are scattered every which way so that we need a system to mark
which items have been counted and which have not. Common strategies include:

● As each item is counted, it is pushed into another pile.

● A mark is put next to the items that have been counted.
● With a very large collection, items might be sorted into clusters of 2s, 5s, or
10s—those friendly numbers that we can easily skip-count.

Children’s mathematical understanding has to be at a certain stage of devel-

opment before they themselves begin to use one of these strategies. However, just
as it is valuable to have the number sequence in long-term rote memory before
full number sense is established, it is important to have model strategies so they
seem natural when the child knows to use them.
Thus, Ms. Kami purposefully does think-alouds when doing any of the many
counting tasks that teachers are responsible for. When counting children during
circle time, she purposefully starts from her left side one day, her right side on an-
other day, and from a random point on a third day. When seeing a small collection
of cubes on the table, she counts one by one and drops the cube into a basket.
When counting up money for a field trip, she might say, “Children, will you thank
your parents for me. Everyone sent in dollar bills instead of coins so I can easily
count how much we have. I’m putting all the $5s together in this pile and that one
is the $1s.” Children standing nearby chime in as she puts the stack of bills in her
hand and lays them down as she counts—first the $5s by fives and then the singles
by ones.
The order irrelevance principle helps children develop flexible thinking skills.
They gradually learn that there is more than one way to count a set of objects and
there are many useful strategies that make counting scattered objects easier.

Cardinality Principle

Math Snapshot
Today there are no children absent. As a group, when they get to the last children to
be counted, the class chants “. . . 15, 16, 17.” Ms. Kami always follows up the pro-
cess by asking, “So how many children are here today?” When the children respond
“17” she knows they understand that the last word used in a counting sequence tells
you how many are in the set.

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 As simple as it might seem, understanding cardinality actually involves two dif-
ferent uses of number: first, the child applies the numbers to the objects being
counted, using the correct number sequence (stable order principle) and counting
each item once and only once (one-to-one correspondence principle). Second,
once the count has finished, the counter reuses the last number word she said
during the count to name the total amount of the set. In this way, the final num-
ber name is different from the earlier ones in that it not only “names” the final
object and signals the end of the count, but also tells you how many objects have
been counted altogether.
When a child counts, there are a number of ways that we can find out
whether the child has grasped the principle of cardinality:

● When asked, “How many altogether?” the child names the last number that
was counted and does not need to count over again.
● The child can count out a specified number of items to create a set of given
quantity. When asked, “Give me five from that pile of cubes,” the child
counts out five cubes and hands them over as a set.
● When given more items to add or subtract from a set, the child can count on
or count back, instead of counting all. When told, “Sam had five toy cars and
Nana gave him four more for his birthday, how many does he have now?”
The child may need to count actual items of manipulatives but responds
by saying, “So he had five and got six, seven, eight, nine—he had nine
altogether.”
● The child knows that the quantity remains the same despite of the fact
that the arrangement of objects changes. For example, the child responds,
“It is still five” when a linear array of five items is arranged in a circular
pattern.

Once again, children whose primary experience in counting is “naked num-

ber” recitation of the number sequence are less likely to understand the cardi-
nality principle and apply it to counting activities. Those who have experienced
counting as an authentic and useful way to establish “how many” can make much
more sense of number operations that call for joining, separating and compar-
ing sets—the topics that will be explored more thoroughly in Chapter 4, Number
Operations.

Implications for Teaching

In many ways, number sense and counting are so closely connected it seems
they should be considered together. However, over the years the Early Math
Collaborative has come to a deeper appreciation of how complex the concept

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 of number is and how important it is to allow young children to construct
their understanding as they move back and forth from concrete to pictorial
to symbolic representations of number. Thus, we devoted one chapter to
exploring how humans come hardwired with an intuitive sense of numerosity
or quantity for very small amounts. We looked at the importance of nurturing
and building on that instinct in early childhood classrooms: we need to
offer the children many engaging and authentic experiences that use the
natural capacity for subitizing so that the children develop visual number
sense.
In this chapter, the focus has shifted to conventional words and symbols
that are used to represent numbers and to answer the essential question of How
many? that dominates so many aspects of our daily lives. Indeed, counting is one
of the earliest mathematical abilities that young children develop. There is strong
evidence that children’s mastery of counting principles at the end of kindergarten
predicts their level of arithmetic abilities in the primary grades. To help young chil-
dren master the counting principles, we suggest several teaching strategies to keep
in mind.

Develop Rational Counting Skills

through Authentic Experiences
Full rational counting with a strong grasp of cardinality up to 10 is a process
that takes usually two to three years to develop. For most children, rational
counting starts to show up at the end of preschool or beginning of kinder-
garten. In kindergarten, many children master good number sense to about
20 or 25. Developmentally, most kindergarteners and even some first graders
do not have a precise idea of “how many” numbers over 50 and 100 really
represent. This has some serious implications for teaching. Overemphasizing
rote counting to high numbers before the counting principles are established for small
numbers is counterproductive. It can completely blind an adult to the fact that a
child who can count to 100 may understand “how many” only in quantities
under 20 or 10.
To help children develop a strong foundational understanding of counting
rules, it is critical to start with small numbers through many authentic experi-
ences and mathematical conversations. The daily routines in the classroom are
a good place to explore counting. Whether it is taking attendance, making sure
there are enough smocks in the art center, or seeing how many snacks there are,
it is important to provide authentic opportunities for children to count. Table 3.1
is a list of activities that can be used to support the development of the four
counting principles in young children.
Counting activities that include movement or other cues literally put the
odd/even or the 5s and 10s structure of the number system into children’s eyes,
ears, and bodies and thus firmly fix them in long-term memory.

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 TABLE 3.1 Activities to Support the Counting Principles

Principle Evidence/Skills Activities and Routines

Stable Order Fluency in counting using • Counting songs and

number names correctly first by movement/games
1s, then skip-counting by 2s, 5s, • Counting up and back
and 10s from any number
Knows number sequence forward • Posting and referencing a
and backward—can continue an 1–10 number line that uses
“interrupted” count dots plus numerals

One-to-One Coordinates saying one number • Daily routines such as in

Correspondence word with one point to each snack, passing out this or
object that, and lunch tickets
• Music/movement games
such as marching to a
drumbeat
• Board games with paths to
move along by counting
spaces

Order Irrelevance Arranges and rearranges a • Starting counts of a fixed

collection to confirm count set such as taking atten-
Groups objects for more efficient dance beginning with
counting different children
• Using think-alouds
and modeling using a sys-
tem such as lining up,
clustering, counting by
2s, 5s, or 10s

Cardinality Labels small sets by quantity • Label the cardinal value

(with or without counting) of a set after counting
Counts out a given number (1, 2, 3, 4 . . . 4 books)
Counts on (or back) from a given • Routines that involve
quantity counting out a specified
number such as snack
(4 crackers and 2 slices of
cheese)

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 Use Routines to Practice Counting

Math Snapshot
Shortly after the winter holiday break, Ms. Kami introduces a new attendance system.
She has arranged 20 peel-and-stick library pockets in two lines on a poster board.
Each line features five red pockets and five white pockets. In front of the poster, a can
holds 17 wooden sticks, one for each child in the class.
Ms. Kami explains that when the children arrive each morning, they place one
wooden stick in any pocket on the chart. At group time, she brings out the chart
and the can, which has two sticks left in it, since Becca and Dagan are absent, and
asks, “Does anybody have any ideas about how we can use our new chart to figure
out how many children are here today?” A number of children have suggestions
and Ms. Kami tries each one out with the group watching.
“Just count the pockets with sticks in them,” Jane says. As Ms. Kami points,
the children count to 15. “So how many children are here today?” Ms. Kami asks.
Several respond “15” and Ms. Kami writes the number on the board.
“It would be easier to count if we put all the sticks in pockets next to each
other and left the empty ones at the end,” Danny says. Ms. Kami does that and the
group again counts 15 sticks.
“I know it’s 15 because there’s 2 sticks left in the can,” Chris shares, and
Ms. Kami has him demonstrate. He pulls out the two sticks and counts up, “See,
it’s 15 up there and these sticks are 16 and 17. And 17 is all we have.”

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 This new attendance routine that Ms. Kami
TEACHER TALK uses for her classroom helps children practice
Tammy, Kindergarten Teacher the rules of counting in a number of ways:
I know the children are going to be expected to rote
count to 100 before first grade, so we count every ● There are 17 sticks in the can; each
day. Sometimes we’ll count from 1 to 100; other child has one stick and every pocket can
times I’ll change things up by having us start at hold one stick—a clear case of one-to-one
a number like 47 or 48 and then go up to 100 or
correspondence.
down to 1.
I use an action count when the kids just need ● The attendance chart has 20 pockets bro-
to shake their sillies out. One of their favorites is ken into 4 sets of 5 to strengthen children’s
the Punch Right/Punch Left—that has the chil-
visual understanding of how many, or car-
dren punching with their right hand on odd num-
bers and punching left on the even. They love it. dinality, using the sets of 5s and 10s.
● Children can put their sticks in any
pocket, which reinforces order irrelevance.
The arrangement of the pockets embeds the idea that there could be a
system used—and when children have developed sufficient understand-
ing, they will apply it on their own, as Danny does with his suggestion.
● Chris’s suggestion that they count up from 15 (the number of children pres-
ent) to 17 (the total number of children in the class) is another instance of
cardinality understanding. Fifteen names the set of children who are present.
Chris starts with 15 and counts on two more for the two absent children,
rather than counting from one again.

In addition to helping children master the counting principles through daily

exercise, Ms. Kami also uses the opportunity to illustrate multiple ways to reach
the same result. Such experience is fun to participate in and encourages children
to think mathematically and flexibly.

Highlight Number Pattern and Structure

to Advance Rational Counting Skills
For many adults, reciting numbers and the alphabet seem equal accomplish-
ments. In fact, when the sequence has been committed to memory, the two feats
are equivalent. However, there is a significant difference between the alphabet and
the number sequence when pattern and structure are considered. Compare how
quickly you can say what comes before and after

● The letter H
● The number 25

If asked what comes four places before or after H or 25, the difference in
retrieval time is considerably greater for H than for 25. Why is that? That’s
because starting the alphabet with ABC is a convention; if the Greeks had

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 begun with their letter string with chi, rho, zeta, we probably would be learning
our CRZs.
While the ABC sequence is arbitrary, numbers follow a well-defined and pre-
dictable pattern. Once we understand the structure, we can continue accurately
counting up or down from any amount. As well, our number system is a base-10
system. Each time we get to the next 10, we begin the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9 again. Knowing such a pattern, counting big numbers become so much easier.
Also, there are “friendly”numbers such as 5 and 10, which are easy-to-remember
landmarks in our number system. Maybe because we have five fingers on each
hand and 10 fingers altogether, children learn to group and skip count by these
“friendly” numbers first. Counting games and experiences that integrate the num-
ber structure and patterns, such as Ms. Kami’s attendance chart, not only help
children with their counting skills but also advance their understanding of our
number system.
The calendar routines that have become the staple of many preschool
and Head Start classrooms are unfortunately not an activity conducive to
children’s number sense and counting skill. In the first place, the 7-column,
5-row grid gets filled in a different way each month, since the day on which
the month begins and the number of days is highly variable. Even if that is
not the case, 7 is a very “unfriendly” number—most people find it very chal-
lenging to count by 7s; it is an unnatural break in the 0–9 sequence of digits
and does not invite use of our natural counting tools, our fingers and hands.
The base-10 structure of our number system is completely lost by the calen-
dar format.
Furthermore, for young children, psychological time, which is much more
important to them than clock or calendar time, doesn’t correspond at all to
regular units like minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months. Though they may be
able to rote recite or sing the days of the week and the months of the year, these
units mean little if anything to young children. They are likely to feel they have
to wait forever for their birthday next week; but if they are enjoying themselves,
that same week seems to pass in no time at all. Children may know a song giv-
ing the days of the week, but be unable to answer or make sense of question
such as “If your birthday is on a Tuesday, what day of the week is it before your
birthday?”
The 10 to 20 minutes spent daily on calendar would be much more produc-
tive if teachers put the number structure and patterns into the children’s bodies
by including counting games, songs, and movement activities.
There are some alternative ways to do calendar in preschool that do help
children see how the number of days in a month grows. Some find that creating
paper link chains, with a new link added each day is an effective and engaging
visual picture of the increase. Such calendars reinforces the plus-one structure
of the number system. School day links can be made with one color and home
days with another.
Others have found creating a linear calendar is effective. Each month, the
teacher puts up a long roll of paper marked from 1 to 28, 30, or 31. Anticipated

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 events like birthdays, field trips, and holidays are written in balloons above the
date. If something special happens on a given day, that event is also entered.
Each day a marker such as a large clip is moved to the next date. At the end of
the month, the class reviews all that has happened in the month, so that
it becomes a kind of classroom timeline. Teachers using this method report
children develop a much stronger sense of time because the linear strip gives
them a visual measure of how long it will be to an anticipated event as well as
a concrete sense of what happened in the immediate past and what happened
longer ago.

Finding Great Math in Great Books

Every year a host of new counting books comes out. We can reference only a few
here, so we have chosen ones that bring out the principles of counting.
● One Gorilla by A. Morozumi and Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert are two great
counting books that emphasize the plus-one structure of our number sys-
tem. The illustrations increase children’s engagement with these books. In
addition, both name other attributes of the collections, helping underscore
the idea that number is one of several possible attributes.
● One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root and A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson
are among some of the most appealing counting books that build a theme
or story into the number sequence. In these books, children find it natural
to use one-to-one correspondence to show how many are in each new set
of creatures. The books also have delightful illustrations and rich language.
There are a number of editions of counting songs that work in a similar way,
including Over in the Meadow, which is available in several beautifully
illustrated editions, and This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrdhart, which uses the
traditional chant Knick, Knack, Paddy Whack to celebrate African American
musicians.
● Ten in the Bed by Penny Dale or Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow,
Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang and 10 Minutes till Bedtime by Peggy
Rathman are additional delightful stories and songs that emphasize the idea
of counting on or counting back.

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 Video Link
In the Movement Counts activity, the teacher first reminds children of the book
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle that they have read together before. The teacher
then leads a game with the whole class of children in which they move their bod-
ies like the animals in the pictures of From Head to Toe. As you reflect on what the
video indicates about counting, here are a few questions to consider:
1. What is the value of matching movements to counting words with one-to-one
correspondence? What does such exercise do to English language learners?
2. Why is there a need to exaggerate each body movement in this activity?
3. Why is it important that teacher and children count aloud with one-to-one
correspondence to the body movements?
4. What evidence do you see of children’s understanding of the counting rules?

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