Learning to count is much more difficult than one would think. Of course, we all learned to count and it's doubtful that any of actually remember what that process was really all about because it was so long ago.  Once the principles of counting are fully understood, there are a wealth of resources here to take the learner to the next step in counting:

• Hundred's Chart Worksheets
• Numberlines Focusing on Counting up to 10
• What Comes Before and What Comes After Worksheets
• Ordinal Number Worksheets
• Counting by 10's
• Greater or Less than 20

These are just a few worksheets and printables to help with counting. Remember, use concrete manipulatives and one to one finger pointing (touching) when teaching young learners to count.

In the Common Core Standards, kindergarten learners are to count to 100 by ones and by tens. This is a concept that often takes longer than a year to learn.  In the Common Core, it's called Counting and Cardinality. Cardinality refers to the ability of recognizing that four things is represented by the number 4 or that the last number in a set refers to the actual amount.  To support the kindergarten learner, many concrete experiences are needed. This week, I focused on how to support teaching counting to kindergarten learners in order to support the Common Core Standards in Kindergarten.

Number fluency at an early age refers to a full understanding of the principles of counting. Knowing everthing that a number represents. For instance, let's take six. It means know that 6 means 6 of something that's it's less than any number greater than 6 and more than every number less than 6. It means knowing that in a line up or on a number, there is a 6th place. It's knowing that it can refer to 6 concrete items (buttons, cars, coins etc.) or 6 abstract items (6 breaths, 6 thoughts, 6 ideas etc.) It's knowing where 6 is placed on a number line. Research has indicated that children who lack number fluency in the first grade tended to lag by the 7th grade, were behind their peers and lacked the basic math skills required to function as an adult. More on this story.

Are you one of many individuals taking the SATs in June? If so, be sure to register by the May 22 deadline. The SAT math is a 70 minute math test consisting of 44 multiple choice and 10 open response type questions. Be sure to check out the College Board for practice items to prepare yourself for the test.