What are the Big Ideas in Number?

At Lindisfarne Primary School we are committed to every learner demonstrating at least a year of growth for a year of learning in both Reading and Number.  Our teaching and learning of the Number and Algebra Strand within the Australia Curriculum focuses on the Big 6: Trusting the Count, Place Value, Multiplicative Thinking, Partitioning, Proportional Reasoning and Generalising.  Over the next few newsletters, I will explain some of these Big Ideas and provide some ideas for you to support these at home.

Professor Di Siemon. Nailing the Big Ideas in Number: National Partnership Schools Forum

Trusting the Count

Trusting the Count focuses on the fundamental building blocks which children need to be able to develop number sense.  It includes being able to count aloud using the correct sequence (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc), recognise numerals, recognising dice patterns, count collections by counting in ones and then later 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and also matching the correct numeral to a collection.  Subitising (recognising how many are in a collection without having to count it) is also a key component of Trusting the Count as well as developing mental images of collections (seeing that 6 can be represented in different ways on a tens frame and having a photo of this stored to recall when needed – please see below).

I know what 6 looks like on a ten frame…

When students begin to see that amounts can be partitioned (broken up) into multiple parts they can then start using this understanding to help them solve more complex problems. 

How can you help at home?

Asking your children to subitise (say how many without counting) regularly is important.  This can be done at tea time (How many carrot pieces are on your plate?), in the car (How many cars are parked on the side of the road?), at the park (How many children can you see playing at the swings?) or even just before they go to sleep (How many windows can you see?).  If the collection is larger than 5 or 6 encourage them to see the collections as groups rather than counting all (e.g. I can see 5 pillows on the couch and another 2 on the chairs so that’s 7).  This can also be done while reading stories but looking at the pictures and talking about how many we can see.  If you child is not yet ready to subitise counting the items on a page, pointing to each individual item once, and being able to say how many at the end is also a great way to engage in number discussions at home!

Here are some pictures of our Kinders, Preps & Prep/1s exploring Trusting the Count.  They are using things like dominoes and number lines to help them explore numbers and collections!

Place Value

When we start working with numbers 10 and beyond we are starting to work with the understanding that 10 of these is 1 of those (e.g. 10 ones is 1 ten).  When we explore Place Value we are learning about the value of digits.  We can develop this knowledge by making, naming, reading and recording numbers.  Students can use multiple materials to represent/make numbers.  We encourage students to start by using items that can be counted individually and then once they have ten of these can be bundled together to make 1 ten.  Such items include ten frames, icy pole sticks, straws, unifix cubes and matchsticks.  Ten is a crucial collection/number for students to understand as this is how all numbers are built. 

Once children can read, name, make and record numbers fluently and with understanding, we can then start to explore how to manipulate these by seeing how we can make them in different ways, this is called renaming (e.g. 387 is 3 hundreds, 8 tens and 7 ones. It is also 38 tens and 7 ones. It can also be 3 hundreds and 87 ones and it can be 387 ones).  Working flexibly with numbers is important so that children can apply this when they are solving problems.  During their work on Place Value, children will also explore solving addition and subtraction problems using multiple strategies and with the support of their understanding of Place Value.

How can you help at home?

Asking your children to regularly read numbers and talk about the value of each digit is a great way to get children to explore Place Value.  Playing games such as “I’m thinking of a number between __ & __” and asking your child(ren) to guess the number without stating the number and using the language of Place Value (e.g. Does it have 5 tens or does it have 3 ones?).  You can also ask them to count collections at home.  For example, you could ask them to count the pasta before it goes into the pot by practising counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.  Ask them to place these groups separately so that your child can visually see how many groups they have counted (e.g. there are 13 groups with 5 in each and there are 65 altogether).  This is the start of Multiplicative Thinking which will be explored in our next newsletter!

Here are some pictures of our Prep/1 and Grade 1 students reading, making and recording two-digit numbers using different materials.