• Number Sense - What is it and why do we need it?

     

     

    Number sense is a group of skills that allows students to work with numbers. Some of these skills include:

    • Understanding quantities.

    • Grasping concepts like more and less, or larger and smaller.

    • Recognizing relationships between single items and groups of items (for instance, seven means one group of seven items).

    • Understanding symbols that represent quantities (for instance, 7 means the same thing as seven).

    • Making number comparisons (for instance, 12 is greater than 10, and 4 is half of 8).

    • Understanding the order of numbers in a list: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

    Number sense develops when students are able to use numbers in flexible ways when carrying out mathematical operations, such as addition, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. It also develops when students connect numbers to their own experiences. Number sense also involves developing useful strategies when counting, measuring or estimating. 

     

    Click on the link below to watch a short video on number sense by Professor Boaler from Stanford University.

     

    Professor Boaler from Stanford University on Number Sense - In English

    Professor Boaler from Stanford University on Number Sense - In Spanish