This session is composed of two major components:
- The theory (and research) behind the foundations of number sense in children and how children learn and see math,
- The practical and meaningful implementation of number sense into the classroom.
The workshop is structured to be interactive and engaging. Participants will be involved in the math and the conversations about children and numeracy. They will walk away from this session with ideas and understandings that they can apply immediately to their classroom. We are also believers that we as professionals need to see numeracy from the perspective of children. This means teachers need to be engaged in the math. We will model highly engaging exercises that build number sense and appreciation for mathematical learning.
Number sense is based on:
- four early numeracy concepts (subitizing, verbal counting, number counting and cardinality)
- four number sense relationships (spatial relationships, one/two more/less, benchmarks of 5 and 10, and part-part-whole).
We will build a concrete understanding of these 8 important foundational skills through theory and research as well as hands on activities and routines to be applied to classrooms. We will explore how number sense builds knowledge, skills and understandings in estimation, number decomposition, operations, story problems (contexts) and mathematical reasoning & conversation in the elementary classroom.
While foundational number sense skills are fundamental in the K-2 classroom, the gaps created in students who have not been exposed to this important stage of learning can be seen at any level. We see this session as being applicable especially to K-6 teachers, but also beneficial to all educators struggling with students who struggle with basic math skills.
This workshop will be highly interactive as we will ask participants to engage in math tasks and learn for themselves the power of number sense.
This learning opportunity is made possible through funding from Alberta Education.