When teaching maths to children you always go from the concrete (counters in your hand) to the abstract (working it out on a numberline, no counters at all!).
I have been busy in my class trying to convince children that 3 counters in your hand is the same as pointing to the number 3 on the number line. Simple as this may sound to you and me, well it doesn’t always fly in my world!
Anyway, I have been trying so hard to wean my class off counters and take baby steps towards abstract knowledge of numbers. I have spent lots of time showing them that 2+3 with counters and 2+3 with the number line is exactly the same!!!!
I have decided to ban all counters in my room starting tomorrow. Yikes! This will encourage the mathematicians among us to use more “mental maths”, or work it out in their head/fingers. For those who are kinda stuck between concrete and abstract I have created a “cheat number line”!!!
Click on the picture below to download!
What do you think? The number line is underneath and corresponds to the cute pictures.
I am hoping that this middle step will make the connection between the numbers and objects a little clearer. At the very least, we will be using abstract pictures instead of concrete counters. Am I grasping at straws?!?!?
Perhaps some of you are teaching or parenting children who are at a similar stage. Perhaps your child is ready to count pictures instead of objects. Perhaps you have no number line and maths homework tonight. Whatever the reason, I hope that you find this number line and post useful.
Have fun,
Miss Mernagh 🙂
missmernagh.com 