Composing and decomposing numbers is critical learning for Kindergarteners and 1st Graders. This is something that needs to be practiced all year long as students master the combinations first for 5, then 6, then 7, etc. And, of course, they won’t all progress...
I’ve been working with my Firsties on composing and decomposing numbers, and we are currently working on combinations for eight. I decided to take it in a different direction this week and work on decomposing into three parts, so I made a part/whole mat with...
In her book How Children Learn Number Concepts*, Kathy Richardson devotes an entire chapter to composing and decomposing numbers. It may surprise you that the title of the chapter is Understanding Addition and Subtraction: Parts of Numbers. This quote sums it up...
It’s no secret that fractions are a very difficult concept for students to understand. But why is that? Fractions are an extremely abstract concept, and without adequate concrete and representational experiences that build fraction number sense, students do not...
Number sense. A phrase that we hear a lot in the math world. Some kids have it and some don’t. Many adults lack number sense! But what do we mean by number sense, and how do we help our students develop a strong sense of number? This post contains affiliate...
